The Virus
by Tenyakares
Summary: Hot Rod and Prowl get caught by the Decepticons and Megatron makes an experiment with their behaviour script that works out quite fine for his taste slashy! . Inspired by Ladena's pwp series on DeviantArt. See my Deviantpage for a pic of fanged Prowler!
1. Chapter 1

**Observe**

Megatron gazed in wonder at the little animal.

It paced its cage slowly, the sharp yellow eyes were wandering along every bar, searching for a weakness, a way out.

Though normally not at all fond of the earth's organic population, Megatron couldn't help but feel fascinated. The grace and beauty of the animal was astonishing.

Every paw was placed with accuracy with each step, the long, slim back arched around the turns, the heavy head always perfectly balanced out and those eyes, those damn sharp, clear eyes always watching, taking in everything around.

Megatron wondered what they could see. How good they were, if they could compete with the abilities of a mech's optics.

Slowly he crouched down.

Already at the very first moment of his movement the animal had swooped around, facing him, body tense, ready for a jump to attack him.

Him, who was a robot, immensely huge in comparison to the tiny, fragile organic.

"So courageous" Megatron murmured and lay down on the floor, bringing himself face to face with the animal. "Even now. When you're trapped and caged."

The golden eyes stared at him intensely. The animal's jaw dropped slightly and when Megatron raised a hand to test its reaction, the cat shot forth, mouth wide open, baring long, sharp fangs and making a threatening hissing noise.

"Ready to fight until the very end. Interesting."

For hours Megatron lay there, watching the animal, taking in every nuance of its behaviour that was presented to him. Sometimes he teased it with a stick and was impressed at what that tiny mouth could crack. When he stuck a piece of rubber tube through the bars, the cat snapped at it and pulled – within some seconds it hat ripped the thing into tiny really began to like it. Perhaps organics weren't so bad after all… After some time Ravage came, bringing him another animal he had caught after his order. As far as Megatron knew it was a deer or something. It was about the size of the cat.

As he had ordered, it was still alive. Ravage had dragged it here by its hindlegs. They had some scratches, but the animal was still vital.

"Very good, Ravage" Megatron praised, being in a good mood. He picked up the cage with the cat and brought it to a small room. For the fun of it, he put in some boxes and spare items to give the prey a chance to hide.

The cage of the cat had a remote control, so he let the deer go in the room and left it, closing the door behind himself.

There was a control room beside it with a huge window.

Normally this was his torture room set, and most likely it was inhabited by Starscream. But today he would not use the acid sprays, electro pads or shooting devices.

Ravage had jumped up to the sill of the window, looking in curiously.

The deer had run away and hid, body shaking, in a corner of the room.

Megatron pushed a button and the cage of the cat opened.

It watched the bars fall with wide eyes and at first didn't do anything, waiting if something more would happen. Then very carefully it stretched out its nose and when it realised the cage was indeed open, it shot out like a bolt and sought cover behind some boxes first.

That was when Soundwave came in.

"Research done" he informed.

"What did you find out?" asked Megatron, not letting his gaze go off the predator.

"Organic object is a cougar. Predatory big cat of the American continent. Assumption: Captured cougar is an adult female."

"Does the deer fit for his prey?"

"Perfectly."

"Excellent! Continue."

Soundwave gave a full report about everything he found out about cougars while Megatron was still watching the big cat.

It obviously needed a while to calm down herself. Only after two hours she dared to leave her hiding place.

She was obviously smelling her prey for she determinedly took the right direction without being able to see the deer at the moment past the obstacles.

She crouched behind a box and very slowly peeked around the edge.

The deer had collapse in the corner, breathing quickly with fear.

To Megatron's surprise and satisfaction, the cougar did not immediately run for it but pulled back again.

Instead of taking the straight way, it slowly stalked closer, going from hiding spot to hiding spot. Its movements were incredibly slow when it was in the open, it had half closed its eyes to hide their bright colour and in unbelievable balance it slow-moved closer, the body a perfection of lax and tense muscles, the gaze never off its prey.

Always when the deer looked its way, it froze in motion, making it harder to be spotted.

It was an amazing sight.

The prowl took nearly the quarter of an hour until the cougar had reached a box standing pretty close by the deer. Behind that it crouched. Megatron saw that it stepped around on the floor with all four paws slightly until it obviously found the perfect placement. And then suddenly it launched forth, two immensely wide jumps and it was there. In that time the deer had scarcely the time to notice the mortal danger and try to stand up, but before it could make one jump to flee, the cougar practically embraced it, slinging its frontlegs around the deer's chest and with deadly precision the long fangs sank into its neck. When Megatron imagined being in the place of that poor deer, he could well understand that it must nearly already be scared to death.

A shrill shriek escaped the deer before its windpipe closed by the force of the bite.

It struggled a little, but the cat had it in a tight grip and didn't let go a bit.

For several minutes lasted the death of the deer, its eyes bulging, blood leaking from its neck, fighting for breath and now and then struggling in a futile attempt to get loose.

The cougar didn't rush. The strong jaw never let go until after nearly ten minutes the blood flow from the deer's throat stopped pulsing.

Tentatively the cougar opened its jaw, always ready to bite again should the deer move. But it didn't.

The first gaze of the predator was for her surroundings when she had let go of the deer's neck. Though she saw nothing around, she opted for being careful and dragged the deer into a shelter behind two boxes.

There she began ripping it apart to eat it.

"Fascinating" murmured Megatron. Then he turned to Soundwave, who had also patiently watched the scenario.

"Prepare the lab for cerebral download."

Some minutes later Megatron entered the laboratory with the cougar.

He had had quite some problems with catching her, and if he had been an organic, he would now have some bloody wounds. The cat had fought like mad, even against this totally superior opponent.

But now Megatron had her safely in one hand, paws stuck between his fingers and her head sticking out atop.

He held the still hissing and growling feline out for Soundwave to attach the delicate electrodes to its head.

When Soundwave applied the current, the cat went limp in Megatron's hand.

The downloading process took several minutes. Megatron was surprised to find so much information in such a tiny organic brain.

It left the cat weak and hazy, but not dead.

"Do you have it all?" the decepticon leader asked his officer.

"Affirmative" assured Soundwave.

"Good." An evil smirk curled up Megatron's lips.

"Extract the information that makes up the character and the behaviour of the cat.

And program a virus that is capable of overriding the behaviour script of a mech with it."

--

Prowl transformed and climbed the hill.

Taking out his binoculars, he scanned the horizon.

The sun was blazing down, the air was waving with the heat emanating from the dry desert floor.

There was no sign of anything hostile around.

He contacted his patrol partner. "Prowl in, everything clear."

"Here too" answered Hot Rod. "At least the floor."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that flying decepticons leave no traces on the floor and therefore it's stupid to look out for tracks on the ground."

"Copy. Prowl out." Prowl ended the transmission.

"High-flyer" he grumbled.

Hot Rod was in Autobot base for half a year now and since his first day he acted as if he owned the place.

He was a powerful fighter and had a good education, but still… he lacked millions of years of experience. And finesse.

Turning around, Prowl just wanted to transform back into vehicle mode when he caught sight of something that made him halt.

Sensors alert, he raised the binoculars again and searched the horizon again… this time the sky above it.

It was true, he saw a faint contrail.

Checking back on the databank of flightmaps he had from the humans he found that it was unlikely that it was of human origin.

He examined the contrail thoroughly and tried to estimate how old it was and where it was going.

After having some simulations run on his systems, he hastily sought out Hot Rod's frequency and tried to contact him.

It took a moment until he reached him.

"Hot Rod in."

"There is a contrail that leads into your area, Hot Rod, take care! Can you see it?"

There was a pause. "Yeah, I think I see it. What's it about it?"

Prowl frowned. Had the youngster already forgotten that he had taunted him about searching traces on the floor, instead pointing at the sky?

"It might be a decepticon" he said irritated.

"Uhm… yeah, right. I have a creepy feeling here in fact, Prowl, somehow, as if I was being watched or something…. Would you perhaps come and have a look? Perhaps when they concentrate on me, you can find them out without them finding you. If there is anybody, that is."

"You sure we shouldn't call reinforcements?"

"Uhm… no Prowl, come on, its just a contrail and me being somewhat jumpy, I would be hell embarrassed if we called up Prime now and it turns out it's all nothing."

"Alright, I'll be there, keep your head down and try to behave inconspicuously."

The behaviour Hot Rod showed was slightly out of character, he found. The Hot Rod he knew would never admit he was "jumpy". Strange.

Prowl disconnected and transformed to drive out to Hot Rod.

--

Megatron chuckled. "Very good."

Soundwave unwrapped the wire he had connected to Hot Rod's antenna to hijack his frequency.

"You will not get through with this!" the young autobot shouted and received a hard kick into his abdomen from Megatron for it.

"Shut up you idiot. And watch just how good it will work. Soundwave, deactivate his vocal processors also. We can not risk that he screams for help when the other bot comes near."

"Get your greasy fingers off of me!" screeched the youth, agitated, but Soundwave just plainly ignored his calls and thrashing, undid the armour around his throat and ripped the cables out which gave the vocal processors current.

Immediately Hot Rod fell silent and if Megatron saw it right, a bit of fear slowly crept into the defiant youngster when they carried him off to a hiding place.

--

Prowl shortly contacted the base and told them that he left his post to investigate a contrail sighting and gave the coordinates he was heading to. He received an affirmation and then ended all transmissions. For the case there really were decepticons, he didn't want to scream at them that he was coming.

Carefully, not too quick to avoid noise, he drew nearer to Hot Rod's position.

The contrail had nearly vanished. But it didn't exactly calm Prowl – since it should lead somewhere. What it did not.

When he was about a kilometre away from Hot Rod, he transformed and sneaked closer.

"Hot Rod?" he lowly called out when it were only some more meters to where his signal emanated from.

Prowl climbed a hill and looked out over the valley where he had expected to find the young warrior. But he was not in sight.

All of the few emotional circuits Prowl had suddenly shot to "Threat!" and only a second later, and a second before he could open a channel to headquarters, there was a strange noise behind him, an electric swoosh, and a hard blow to his head that sent him down to the floor.

It took his system a moment to reboot after that and when he came fully online, he was pinned down by two heavy bots while a third was wrenching his weapon from his fingers.

Prowl immediately tried to send an SOS call to headquarters, but he found the radio transmission disturbed and in the next moment he was yanked up and Soundwave appeared in his view.

"What are you doing?" Prowl demanded to know.

"Deactivating your commlink" informed Soundwave with his monotone voice and ripped his antennas off. Then he occupied himself with the bared contacts and short circuited them. It sent a deafening wheezing through Prowl's receptors that only slowly died down and left him totally without radio contact. It was pretty scary.

Prowl didn't ask them for Hot Rod with the hope that the youngster might be hidden somewhere and not caught yet by the decepticons.

Behind him his hands were, despite his struggle, chained together and when he looked over his shoulder he found the three seekers around him.

Starscream sneered a wicked grin at him.

"Congrats, Prowl, you just proved to be as dumb as I always thought you were despite your snooty behaviour."

Prowl's white lips turned into a grim line.

He was shoved forwards and his spark grew cold when he saw Megatron stepping from behind a ledge, grinning smugly and holding a struggling and strangely silent Hot Rod by the neck. The youngster was mouthing curses obviously, but not a sound came from him.

"Well that's a nice pair for my experiment" said Megatron darkly.

"Tie them up. We're done here."

Prowl frantically thought about a way how to escape or at least contact headquarters – but Soundwave knew what he was doing. Prowl's far-range communication was totally down. And against three seekers not even he stood a chance to fight bare handed, let alone with him chained and them armed.

They tied both Hot Rod and Prowl into tight bundles with chains and then connected the chains to Thundercracker and Skywarp.

_That will be an adventurous flight, _Prowl thought just before the seekers transformed and took off – pulling them along with them.

Fighting to look over to Hot Rod, Prowl tried to find out how the youngster was doing. He shortly caught a view of his face and saw that he was scared.

The seekers and their leader quickly gained height – and the only thing keeping Prowl and Hot Rod from falling down and probably breaking every circuitboard were some sloppily slung chains.

Prowl shouted over the noise of the jets at Hot Rod.

"Keep cool, Hot Rod! At the moment we are safer than it looks! Don't try anything stupid! Especially do not try to free yourself when we're over water, thinking that you could escape them! Against the flyers we stand no chance to flee! We have to wait for a better opportunity!"

_You can wait long for that, _thought Soundwave, able to make out every word with his keen audio sensors.

--

Red Alert blew a fuse when he failed to contact both Prowl and Hot Rod.

He had tried to reach Prowl half an hour after the tactician had told him the he was going to investigate a sighting.

And now both the bots out on patrol were unavailable!

"Red Alert to Prime! We have a situation here, Prime! I can not reach Prowl and Hot Rod after they had a suspicious contrail sighting! I've got a bad feeling about this! And I quite heard that you were sighing, but I tell you something is amiss now, really!"

"I'll send someone out to search for them."

--

Hot Rod stared down, at the brim of panic.

The mountains were damn close… and he knew should he fall against them with the velocity they had at the moment, there would surely not be much more left of him than bent metal and broken circuitboards.

For a moment he was thankful that his vocal processor was down – it would have embarrassed him immensely would he have accidentally voiced his fear now. Like… shriek like a sparkling when the seeker suddenly dropped several meters with turbulences, sending them both swaying in the air.

He clenched the shutters of his optics shut and silently mumbled curses and prayers.

How stupid that he had not paid attention after he himself had pointed out that traces in the sky meant no good!

Mere minutes after he had radioed Prowl suddenly a seeker had popped up behind him out of nowhere, snarled "Sneak attack!" and shoved him over, making him land flat on his belly with a heavy seeker on his back. He had tried to shoot, but the decepticon had easily twisted his arm and ripped the weapon out of his hand.

What a shame! His first close contact with decepticons, and he ended up that way!

In that matter it even was a slight gratification that they had also caught Prowl, the oh so old and experienced tactician.

Though he had a bad consciousness, for he knew the damn decepticon communication officer had imitated his voice over his frequency to lure the other autobot in.

Suddenly they lost a considerable amount of height and Hot Rod's optics snapped open.

But they were not falling, the flying decepticons were obviously intentionally driving downwards behind the mountains and soon the ocean came into sight.

When they were over the water, he felt a lot safer already. Should he fall down now at least he had a chance to survive.

But they never fell. After half an hour of flying and with the coastline long out of sight, a docking tower suddenly popped up from amidst the water and they slowed down to land there.

Megatron and the loud-mouthed blue and red seeker landed first and received the bound autobots before the two carrying seekers transformed and landed, too.

Hot Rod found himself in the arms of the said insufferable seeker.

"Now that's a cutie" he said with a high, screechy voice, "How old are you? Just sparked a decade ago?"

Hot Rod opened his mouth to answer with sparky curses, but was painfully reminded of his broken vocal processor by the silence that came instead of curses.

Damn it.

They were carried in, the portal was closed and the docking tower descended down below the water surface.

Hot Rod knew that the Nemesis had crashed in the pacific ocean somewhere and the 'cons had since used it as their base of operation. And the stupid seeker must be their second in command Starscream, he thought.

Twisting his head to take in his surroundings, he saw the other two seekers more clearly. One was mostly blue, the other black and purple. _Thundercracker and Skywarp, _he thought and that was when he understood how he could be so easily ambushed. Skywarp had _warped_ up behind him. And he had already questioned his audio sensors for not being able to make him out earlier… What a mean trick!

But letting him observe his surroundings was obviously nothing that Megatron would let him do – they were put down and both Prowl and him got a cloth bag put over their heads, effectively blinding them.

Then they were shoved forwards and down some stairs.

Suddenly Hot Rod felt himself pinned against a wall by unbelievably strong hands and the bag was ripped off to reveal Megatron standing right before him, clutching his upper arms.

Hot Rot winced back with shock to find himself nose to nose with the decepticon leader.

The huge grey mech grinned maliciously.

"You don't need to fear me kid… at least not yet. Soundwave, check his system."

Hot Rod began to struggle, but against the strength of Megatron he could not put up anything.

The dark blue communication officer with the scary emotionless masked and visored face stepped up to him and plugged a cable into the comm port under his chin.

_No, no!_ He mouthed and tried to bite it off, but he couldn't reach it and Soundwave roughly slammed his head against the wall behind him, holding him steady, while he was cracking his security codes and downloading information about his system.

Form the corner of his optic Hot Rod saw that Prowl was similarly pinned against a wall by a huge green and purple guy who had appeared additionally to the three seekers all pointing their weapons at the tactician.

Slowly Hot Rod was beginning to feel seriously afraid, though he would never admit it. They were trapped in the very headquarter of the decepticons and that slagging bastard of a communication officer Blaster was always mocking was so mighty that he had cracked Hot Rod's firewall within only some seconds! And now he was reading his system information out! Practically his very being!

To his shame, cleaning fluid threatened to gather in his optics.

He felt violated.

After some minutes, Soundwave ripped the cable off and Megatron shoved Hot Rod into a cell. The bars fell close behind him and he heard a deep hum, indicating that an electrical current was now flowing through them.

Hot Rod fought to get back to his feet halfway dignified with his hands bound behind his back.

Since Prowl was pressed against the wall where his cell was behind, he could no longer see him. But from the noises of struggling, an indignant huff of the tactician and a long pause after that Hot Rod assumed that they were doing the same system cracking to Prowl.

"Unable to crack his firewall" Soundwave informed after several minutes.

Megatron's face darkened. "What can you do?"

"Possibility: Try out different algorithms. Need more time."

"Alright, do what you need."

Hot Rod heard a banging sound when Prowl obviously went down to the floor in the cell beside his' and the bars close and hum. Then the decepticons obviously just left.

Immediately Hot Rod began to search the cell for chances to flee. But he was disappointed. There was just nothing in them. The walls were solid metal plates without even one single seam in them that might have been a spot weak enough to crack. There was no window, only the barred gate.

Hot Rod kicked against the wall, alerting Prowl.

"Hush, Hot Rod!" Prowl reacted. "Don't strain yourself. When your cell looks like mine, there seems not to be a chance to get out of it like this."

_But what then?_ Hot Rod wanted to ask, but his vocal processor wouldn't let him. Primus was that frustrating to be silent! He felt horribly helpless.

And Prowl wasn't exactly helping – since he did say nothing more on his own accord.

--

Slingshot drew a sharp curve.

"Smell that?"

He flew zig zag lines, pinpointing a steam ray in the air.

It was a very very faint difference of the air's temperature and water density. But he could make it out.

Following it, he, Skydive and Air Raid found a place where rather fresh scratches on the dusty floor could be made out.

"Don't land!" said Skydive, "We take pictures from up here and send them to base and while they try to decipher what happened we track the trace."

"Good idea, go ahead, bookworm."

They flew some circles and Skydive contacted the headquarters.

"We found a place where obviously something has been going on. Here are pictures of it. We will try to follow the heat trace."

"Optimus Prime, copy. Do not get close to them! If you make them out, contact me immediately. Prime out."

--

Back in headquarters, Prime gazed at the pictures the aerials had taken.

Jazz stepped up beside him. "You called me?"

"It seems it's true, Hot Rod and Prowl have vanished. What would you say from the pictures here?"

"I'd say get Hound. He's the best in such things."

"Indeed." Prime called Hound up. While they waited for him to come, Jazz mumbled "What could that mean? It doesn't really look like decepticons."

"Well, who else would be able to snatch two grown autobots away?"

"You sure they have been kidnapped?"

"I hope Hound can tell us that."

Some minutes later the Jeep came running in. "Prime, how can I help?"

"Tell me what you would blindly guess what happened here" Optimus Prime pointed at the screen.

Hound scanned the pictures intensely.

"People were gathered here. A single bot came from here. This here looks as if some fighting has been going on with the scratches in the floor. And those dust rings here indicate a jet start. Three jet starts that is."

"Seeker trio" gnashed Jazz.

"What's the matter?" Hound asked.

"They got Prowl and Hot Rod! Prime, we have to send a rescue mission, perhaps we can fetch them before they reach the Nemesis."

But Prime shook his head. "I'm afraid though the idea is good, we are already too late for that.

Skydive, come in?"

"Skydive in."

"How hot is the trace you are following?"

"Very faint, Prime, it's been at least half an hour since they flew by here."

"Where are you?"

"The track is clearly heading for the pacific. We just passed Lead Mountain. Nemesis, I guess."

Jazz' shoulders slumped.

Also Prime hung his head. "Return to base, Skydive."

"Prime?"

"There is nothing more you could do. They most probably have already reached the Nemesis – and even if they haven't we can not attack them as long as they have Prowl and Hot Rod as hostages."

"Copy. We return to base. Skydive out:"

"But what are we gonna do?" asked Jazz nervously.

"For the moment – wait and think. I guess Megatron wants something in turn for them. He will most probably soon contact us. Until then we just have Teletraan's Sky Spy monitor the area around the Nemesis to see who moves out there."

--

After an hour Megatron sought out Soundwave in the cockpit of the Nemesis, which was the communication officer's base of operation.

"Any luck with breaking Prowl's firewall?"

"Negative. Firewall: One of the strongest I have ever seen. Working on it still."

"Who is that other guy?"

"Name: Hot Rod. Origin: Cybertron. Arrival here: assumable only six months ago."

"Anything about his capabilities?"

"Not much public. Absolvent of the three first ranks of fighter school. Good grades. No special abilities known."

"Hmpf."

Megatron brought the camera overseeing the cells to the big main screen.

Prowl was sitting with his legs crossed right amidst the cell, optics offline, motionless.

The young Hot Rod was pacing his cell nervously optics searching for a way out.

It made Megatron grin to see the coincidence.

"How is the virus?"

"Ready, my leader."

"Already? Good! How will it work?"

"It will override the behaviour script of the victim with that of the cougar. The code should blend in quite fine, it was surprisingly logical and easy to accommodate. The memories of the victim, however, will not be altered."

"Perfect!"

Oh how Megatron enjoyed Soundwave's work. Always so perfectly in tune with his ideas.


	2. Chapter 2

**Experiment**

When Prowl heard noises, he onlined his optics and stood up, ready.

But Megatron just walked by his cell with little more than a short look.

Prowl stepped up to the bars.

He heard some shuffling and banging of metal on metal and rolled his optics. Had Hot Rod seriously just tried to run the leader of the Decepticons down with his hands bound?

"Hush, little one" he heard Megatron say in a mocking voice. "You got your name alright, uh?"

In the next moment Megatron passed Prowl's cell again, dragging Hot Rot along.

"What are you doing with him?" the tactician asked calmly.

"Making an experiment" the decepticon only said without halting.

"Leave him, take me for it!" Prowl suggested, not able to stand the thought of the youngster undergoing a decepticon "experiment".

"Since you so fiercely protect your precious programming – no, I prefer the easy path for now. You will participate in the experiment soon enough."

And with that he was gone.

Prowl closed his optics and counted to three, waiting for the wave of anger that wanted to overpower him to subside.

What a mess. What would they do to the poor inexperience Hot Rod who didn't know when to keep his head down? In a way he was thankful that they had deactivated his capability to speak – perhaps that spared him things that would have come over him if he had been able to curse the decepticon against better knowledge.

--

Hot Rod tried his best to put up a fight – but no chance. It was horribly frustrating to see how strong that cursed decepticon was!

He was brought to a laboratory that didn't exactly look comforting.

It was dominated by a huge treating table with strong metal cuffs and along the walls were computers and machines which could do who knew what to a mech.

Within a minute Megatron had his prisoner down on the treating table, shackled and effectively immobilised.

Hot Rod bit his lip, trying to keep the frustrated sob down.

It vexed him to no end that the decepticon leader just totally ignored him. He hated it to be ignored! He hated it how obviously insignificant he was!

A moment later that horrible Soundwave stepped in.

Megatron only nodded into the autobot's direction and the officer immediately went to work.

He bent Hot Rod's head back and occupied himself with the ports under his chin. He plugged on several cables and then sat down at a computer terminal.

Hot Rod tried to erect a new firewall – but it was useless. The decepticon already was in his very system, obviously monitoring each of his thoughts.

Dear Primus.

Soundwave thoroughly checked the autobot's programming. It was rather easy and seemed not to be equipped with automatic backups and complicated self repair systems.

"Object: Ready" he said.

"Continue" said Megatron, sitting comfortably on a chair overlooking their helpless victim.

He found the autobot had a weird design. It was smoother, rounder than what he was used to.

Seems we really have become yesterday's model by now, he thought and grinned about it.

The doorframe darkened, being filled up with the silhouette of a seeker.

Starscream leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.

"So, what's your plan for your prisoner, mighty Megatron?" he said with a note of spite in his voice.

"You will soon see, Starscream, you will soon see."

Hot Rod wasn't at all happy.

The scary comm officer meddled around with his programming! Primus alone knew what he was doing! And what _he _would be doing with an altered programming!

_Leave me alone!_ He mouthed but was still ignored.

By now he was downright scared. When he had gone to earth to fight decepticons, he had imagined fierce courageous battles on the open field and not cowardly kidnapping and reprogramming of a helpless victim!

He only hoped they would be rescued in time.

"I need to shut him down to replace some circuits" announced Soundwave.

"Go ahead."

The comm officer rose and loomed over Hot Rod menacingly.

The young autobot fiercely shook his head, optics bright with panic, when he opened his chest armour and reached out for the security shutdown knob. It was normally there to set a badly injured mech to stasis lock state.

Hot Rod had never been shut down, and he had no desire to be so.

But in his current state… there was nothing he could do.

Soundwave grabbed the knob and turned it determinedly.

Immediately, all of the autobot's systems died down. Engines went silent, fans spun out, optics dimmed off and all servos relaxed.

Concentrated, Soundwave disassembled parts of Hot Rod's helmet and took some circuits out, replacing them with new ones.

When he had put the helmet back together, protecting the fragile and vital central circuitry and processors, he reached out and turned the knob back into "on" position.

They heard fans hiss up, the engines restarted and servos hummed.

Hot Rod's blue optics flashed online and he gasped voicelessly.

For several minutes he stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Firmware of behaviour circuitry is replaced" Soundwave explained.

After several minutes, Hot Rod suddenly moved, jerking sharply in his bonds.

"Was it that?" Megatron asked interested.

Soundwave gave a nod. "Affirmative. Changes implanted."

A sly grin curled Megatron's face. "Very good."

--

Prime hit the table angrily.

No word from Megatron, even after four hours. What was he doing with Prowl and Hot Rod? And what were his plans?

Finally he decided to send Mirage out for an espionage mission. Though he knew he would not be exactly happy to be sent down to the Nemesis.

He assigned Silverbolt to carry him and Air Raid to accompany him. It was Mirage's task only to find out what was going on, not to interfere in the slightest.

On the edge, Prime waited eagerly for the outcome back at the Ark.

--

When Hot Rod came online again, he at first didn't feel any difference.

He was still in the lab, lying on his back, bound and Soundwave was hovering above him.

"Reactivate his vocal processor" he heard the voice of Megatron from a corner.

The comm officer, obviously also technically adept, repaired the broken vocalizer.

"Done."

"Very well." Megatron rose and stepped up beside the table. "How do you feel, Hot Rod?"

For the moment, the autobot didn't dare to answer.

The decepticon freed him from the table but shackled his hands behind his back again.

When he did that, Hot Rod was overwhelmed by a strange urge to squirm in his grip and bite him…

"So, mighty leader… what was the use of that?" Starscream asked, sneering.

"You will still see, Starscream. You really have to learn some patience" said the decepticon leader smugly and with ease threw the bound autobot over his shoulder and carried him off.

Both his officers followed him – up to the torture room.

He put Hot Rod down there and left him, locking the door behind himself.

The decepticons gathered in the control room.

"Oh, seldom that I'm on this side of the window to enjoy the show" Starscream muttered and immediately received a blow to his face.

"Silence. Don't ruin my mood with your stupid bickering" boomed Megatron.

Then he opened the shackles via remote control, freeing their prisoner.

Hot Rod felt the pressure on his wrist lessen. The cuffs fell off.

Unbelieving, he waited for a while to see if something was to come over him.

But when nothing happened, he rolled over to his front with a quick movement and darted off, jumping on one of the random boxes standing around in the room.

Hastily he looked around, standing on all fours.

The room was quite obviously designed to keep someone in who didn't want to be there, offering no way to get out.

There was a mirrored plane, and he could quite guess that the decepticons were on the other side, watching him.

Indeed a moment later he heard Megatron's voice over a speaker.

"And, what do you say, little autobot?"

Overcome by a wave of anger, Hot Rod bared his dental band and growled at the window.


	3. Chapter 3

**Testing**

Mirage hated it. He so hated it.

Stupid job.  
Only because he could turn invisible, he had to dive down to the Nemesis to see what was going on there.

He hated swimming.

Especially in salt water. Especially around the headquarters of the mortal enemy.

Carefully he dove deeper and around the rear of the Nemesis. He knew his territory. He had already been here several times.

And thankfully enough, the old weaknesses were never erased by the Cons.

There was one halfway flooded damaged storage room on the right side of the Nemesis, half dipped in the muddy ocean's floor. It was not entirely waterproof and through several small rifts water continuously seeped in. The Cons obviously only sporadically pumped it empty when the water level stood too high. And… there was an abandoned sluice door near, only a bit up the corridor.

When Mirage used that, the water that came in together with him, since the pumps were not working, flowed down the tipped corridor into the flooded room – and left no treacherous puddles.

Being invisible, Mirage carefully sneaked up the corridor after coming in through his "private door".

He knew the Nemesis pretty well, having been on scouting missions here before.

First aim was, naturally, the cell tract. And indeed he was not disappointed – when he was going there, he heard marching mech feet and met Megatron in a corridor coming from the cell-tract – shoving a shackled Prowl around in front of him.

Mirage quickly pressed himself against a wall and managed to not get touched, then he hurried to follow the decepticon leader and his fellow autobot.

They headed for a part of the Nemesis Mirage had not seen so far – it was for his taste much too far away from his sluice. But now he felt obliged to take the risk for his companion.

Who knew what Megatron was going to do with him?

Unfortunately Starscream was standing in the hallway where Megatron shoved Prowl into a room, and after they were both in, the seeker stood in the doorframe, blocking it from Mirage.

So the autobot spy had to settle with waiting outside. He started a recording to take up what was spoken.

Peeking around the cantilevered seeker, Mirage saw with discomfort that Prowl was bound to a table and Soundwave was in there, too, now occupying himself with the contacts under Prowl's chin.

When the communication officer found the more important ports locked, he produced some tools and cut the plating off.

Prowl's face was grim and nothing was spoken.

Until Starscream lost his patience. "And now what?" he asked after several minutes.

"And now" Megatron growled, "We let my genius do his work in peace"

He grinned smugly at Starscream, knowing that it put his second in command on the edge to hear him praise Soundwave.

Indeed Starscream huffed angrily.

"Your genius that turns into a _cassette deck_" he said mockingly.

"And owns a small loyal army" agreed Megatron warningly, "Exactly."

Soundwave absolutely ignored the bickering of the second in command.

A good amount of frustration was building up in him. That slagging firewall of the tactician still refused to give in!

"Announcement: Cracking will take still more time. I can call you up when I make a progress" he suggested.

Megatron's face grew dark about the delay.

"Alright." He rose and left, shoving Starscream out of the door.

The two leaders marched down the corridor, arguing, and leaving Soundwave alone with his prisoner.

For a moment Mirage was quite tempted to do something.

He only had to somehow open Prowl's bonds and they would already be two against one.

Or six, that was, if Soundwave had his cassettes with him.

Resigned, Mirage only hid the recorder device in the room and left again to see if he found Hot Rod.

He checked on the cell tract, but the cells were all empty.

Ghosting around in the Nemesis, he could make out no trace of the young autobot.

The time when Prime expected him to call back neared, and he had to retreat.

Quickly he rushed to the room where Prowl was held captive.

The situation there had only slightly changed – Prowl's helmet was open, Mirage noticed with shock. The slagging decepticon had obviously meddled with his central computer system!

He carefully picked up the recording device and quickly uploaded its contents. Save for some noises it was empty, nobody had spoken during his absence.

Not daring to contact Prowl in any way, not sure if Soundwave was able to see it by observing the computing going on in Prowl, Mirage left unheard and unseen.

He placed a spy drone in a hidden corner that would only activate in half an hour, giving him the time to leave before it was perhaps tracked down by its radio signal. Having seen Soundwave operate, Mirage was quite positive that sooner or later he would find the spy drone. And he didn't want to be around when that happened, so he hurried to get out.

He managed to get back to his sluice and out of the Nemesis without anyone noticing.

After swimming off a good deal, he dove up and called Silverbolt in to fetch him.

"Found anything?" the aerialbot asked.

"Nothing of use I'm afraid" sighed Mirage. "Bring me back to Prime quickly."

And back to the Ark and its washing racks, he thought.

--

Prowl was constantly reprogramming certain code lines of his firewall, trying to make it impossible for Soundwave to cross it.

The decepticon had even opted for removing some memory chips he thought responsible for the firewall – without luck. Prowl had a secret backup system that had immediately copied the content of the missing chips up to somewhere else.

But to Prowl's rising fear he was slowly but surely running out of energy.

He had been nearly at the end of his shift when they were captured, and with the constant strain he was under his batteries ran out fast. Not to mention that he was hungry and thirsty.

He knew the gap in his firewall. When he fell into recharge, he could no longer use his central processor and its hidden clone to change codelines. Most probably, Soundwave would then find out the tricks he used to secure his systems bit by bit. And he knew, no power of the world could keep his systems from falling into recharge when his batteries' status fell too low.

--

Mirage told Prime what he had seen and excused himself to have a thorough bath, mumbling something about salt and algae in his joints angrily.

In the Ark's control room Prime stood together with Jazz and Ironhide, discussing their options. And to their frustration, they didn't have many.

A direct assault of the Nemesis was out of question. It was far too dangerous, not to mention that Megatron could blow it off with threatening to kill his hostages.

To send Mirage and perhaps some other bots in to free Prowl might have been an option, but as long as they didn't know where to find Hot Rod to free him too, they still had the hostage problem.

Prime had sent Megatron a message in which he proposed negotiations, but the decepticon had not reacted to it yet.

The spy drone in the Nemesis was active now, but it only showed that the situation in the corridor where it sat was unchanged. Through a gap of the door they could see Soundwave sit at a terminal, and they guessed Prowl was also still there.

Not knowing what else to do, they waited for something to happen.

--

"I am hungry" Prowl said levelly.

"I'm not allowed to give you nourishment" was the evenly level answer.

Pity.

Suddenly the comm officer stood up and positioned himself beside the table. Prowl was always surprised to see how damn big he was. Considering his alt mode, you should think that impossible.

"I am tired of this" Soundwave told him. And then he opened his hood, disassembled some minor parts to make way and touched the security shutdown knob.

_Good bye, world_. Prowl thought resigned and then all lights went out.

Soundwave began to disassemble the offline body of his prisoner and analysed every hard-drive, every memory chip and every circuit.

This autobot's system was damn well protected, but finally he could make out the first security measurements, remove them and find those hidden behind.

Bit by bit he broke down the strong wall that was surrounding Prowl's central programming.

He had to admit he was impressed. Prowl had used every trick he knew and even some he didn't know to secure his systems.

But nothing could stand against the hacker qualities of Soundwave.

After another hour of hard work, he had, so he thought, stripped Prowl of all his safety mechanisms. He restarted him and monitored the booting process. It looked fine.

When Prowl came back online, he felt naked.

Feeling out in his sensors, he realised he was not. At least not physically. Only his hood was off and parts of his helmet.

But his software…

Oh Primus! Soundwave had really made it. Nothing of his firewall was standing anymore. The decepticon had even removed all hardware components of it. He was bare to the last line of code of his operating system.

Soundwave seemed to just have realised the same, as he nodded satisfied.

Then he offlined him again and administered the cougar's behaviour script. While it was uploading, he called up Megatron to tell him of his success.

The leader was in the lab within some minutes to watch Prowl being reactivated after the virus was implanted in him.

"Object has only ten emotional circuits" Soundwave explained.

"What does that mean exactly?" Megatron asked. He was not really a crack in the matter of mech architecture.

"His emotions can not be very complex. The average count of emotional circuits of a mech is about one hundred forty. Ten is by far the lowest I have ever seen. The count of the emotional circuits determines how sophisticated the emotions of a mech can be. Like, when a mech feels a mixture of fear, aggression, a desire to flee and pain it is normally distributed on about eighty circuits, meaning that for example 34 circuits indicate fear, 26 aggression, 12 escape and 28 pain. For him it could only be 4 fear, 2 aggression, 1 escape and 3 pain. So to tell, his steps are much bigger and he can not feel a highly defined mixture of emotions. The amount is the same, but the subdivisions are much rougher."

"I see. Interesting fact. Why is that?"

"He has 246 logic circuits, what is more than twice as much as normal. You can only have in the sum 256 logic and emotional circuits. The two compete."

"Alright. But that doesn't really ruin the experiment?"

"It should not. Except for the fact that his emotional development might be unpredictable for us."

"Whatever" Megatron impatiently ended the lesson about circuits and stepped up to their victim.

Prowl had come fully online and had for the most part overheard their talk.

"So, Prowl, great tactician of the autobots. Let's see how a few lines of new code meddle with your famous logic."

Prowl had silently run a diagnostic on his system. He found that they obviously had changed his behaviour script, but so far he could not tell in what way since Soundwave had secured it from him via a hardware firewall. Great thing, now he had a piece of his own system protected from his access!

Megatron freed one of Prowl's hands.

And suddenly he struck with his fist, threatening to punch him in the face.

Within a nanoklik Prowl's free hand flew up and lashed out, fingers curled to claws, misleading Megatron's fist.

It surprised Prowl himself. He had not given the command for any strike! Not to mention the movement was not part of his fighter education.

For unknown reason it made Megatron grin contently.

"Nice work, Soundwave." After a short mettle he had managed to grab Prowl's hand and tied it back to the table.

"Close him up."

Suddenly an idea came to Megatron's mind, inspired by the violent attack the autobot had performed. He radioed Scrapper.

The constructicon came down to the lab and he met him outside and lowly talked with him, laying out his plan. Scrapper looked rather confused, but of course he followed suit. After fetching some tools and spare metal, he began turning Prowl's blunt fingertips into sharp claws.

Megatron watched it, satisfied.

"Tell me something, Soundwave, from your experience… where does the loyalty of a cat lie?"

The comm officer looked up, probably surprised, though that was hard to tell with his expressionless face.

"A cat's loyalty lies by whom gives it shelter, food and comfort."

"Good."

--

Hot Rod unhappily paced the room. By now he had examined every box, every part lying around. Nothing contained food.

He was desperate for nourishment!

The slight urge to go wander about to find some hints on food had slowly developed into the strong desire to smash his dental band into something.

And the weirdest thing about that weird desire was – that he didn't find it weird at all.

Suddenly there was a sound at the door.

Immediately Hot Rod dove behind a box and eyed the door carefully.

It opened to reveal Megatron. The decepticon leader had something in his hand.

He only took some steps into the room, then he placed the thing down on the floor, his optics always on Hot Rod. Smiling, he backed out of the door again and locked it.

When nothing more happened for a while, Hot Rod carefully inched closer to the object the decepticon had brought in.

The smell of energon came to his olfactory sensors.

It made his mouth water and he licked his lips.

He was tempted to jump right for the nicely smelling object. But an old experience he hadn't known to have told him to not hasten.

Carefully, always having an optic for his surroundings, he drew closer. And only when there were but some meters left between him and the thing, he made a jump for it, grabbed it and dashed back for a hiding spot on a box.

There he examined the object. It was a polyurethane cookie soaked in energon. Delicious!

He bit it and greedily sucked the energon out. So good!

It was immensely relieving to satisfy his basic need.

--

Up from the control room, Megatron watched the autobot with a grin.

Hot Rod's movements were changing within a second from very concentrated and slow to swift and agile, now and then he practically froze in his movement to take in the surroundings.

When he had eaten up the cookie, he began to lick his energon stained hands.

With breathtaking grace.

Megatron savoured to watch his creation.

It sent a wave of heat through his systems to see how the young mech finally bent down and even licked the energon drops off the box he was sitting on.

Now, if that view didn't top even Starscream bound and bleeding!

Determined, Megatron called up the constructicons and sent them in to catch the autobot.

He didn't want to do that – he wanted to teach him to trust him. As his master.

The five rough decepticons went to work like they were used to – with brutal force.

They herded the physically much weaker youngster up in a corner, quickly getting the hang of his animalistic behaviour, and then Hook threw his hook, distracting him, while Scrapper and Long Haul threw themselves at him, piling him.

The autobot fought fiercely, lashing out with clawed hands and biting. But against the overpowering force of the constructicons, he couldn't do much more than to give them some scratches.

They pinned him down and began to work on him like Megatron had told them too.

First they built his fingers into sharp claws, like Scrapper had already done with Prowl.

Then they forced a jaw spreader into his mouth and, without EMP, remolded his dental band.

The screeching and growling of the young autobot was audible up to the control room.

Though he did not fully understand why they were doing this, Scrapper as always fulfilled his job with artificial perfection.

He took his time to cut out space for the fangs he built in the opposite dental band and made a long finetuning with a file until the dental band of the autobot flashed silvery and the fangs fitted into each other perfectly, building a dangerous, sharp weapon.

When they were done, they left Hot Rod with his remote cuffs on and left.

The youngster writhed on the floor, trying to wriggle out of his bonding.

But only when Megatron pushed the button again, hidden behind the mirrored window, the cuffs fell off and the mutilated autobot shot off to hide behind a crate.

He licked his dentals nervously, examining their form with his agile glossa.

"Fabulous!" Megatron praised the constructicons.

"Good it pleases you, boss, but… what the heck is that for?" Scrapper asked confused.

"The two autobots are altered in their behaviour. And this new form suits that better. It's an experiment, just for the fun of it" Megatron explained.

For the fun of _him_ that was, to be precise.

He marched over to the lab where Prowl was still bound to the table.

"Do the same with him" he ordered.

Scrapper nodded eagerly. It had been fun to create those perfect dental scalpels.

Prowl was hauled up, his hands bound behind his back, and Soundwave assisted Scrapper with his work.

The tactician fought dearly and managed to nearly bite one of Scrapper's fingers off before they could wrench the jaw-spreader into his mouth that prevented more of such incidents.

While they worked on his dental band, Prowl hissed and growled angrily and tried to rip his head out of Soundwave's grip.

"Hush hush kitty" mocked Scrapper, not knowing how close he was to the truth. "You'll get some nice fang when you let me work here."

He carefully cut a triangular metal piece out of his upper dental band and welded it to the lower one. Pink, oily mechblood dripped from the injured dental into Prowl's mouth. It reminded him of how hungry he was, for it tasted ... good.

Scrapper designed four perfect fangs. While Soundwave removed the jaw-spreader, he tightly held Prowl's head and jaw, only allowing him close his mouth slowly to see how the fangs fitted into each other.

"Perfect!" he praised his own work.

As soon as he let go of Prowl's head, the tactician yanked it around and tried to bite him. Only barely Scrapper was quick enough to pull his hand away.

"Wow, aggressive kitty!"

Megatron, having watched the whole scenario, only chuckled.

Then he picked out a polycookie and a bottle of sustenance from a cargo bay and right in front of Prowl's optics soaked the cookie in the delicious fluid.

The tactician's mouth fell open and Megatron saw how saliva mingled with the mechblood on his lips. Prowl's optics were glued to the cookie greedily.

"Now be a good kitty" Megatron purred and offered him the cookie on his flat hand.

Prowl hesitated for a moment, mistrustful, but then he was overwhelmed by his hunger and his head darted forth. With one swift movement he grabbed the rubbercookie with his dental bands and pulled back, chewing shortly and gulping it down.

His look at Megatron was expectant, as if he accused him of getting so little.

But the decepticon leader grinned. "That's enough for now. Come with me." Megatron nodded at Soundwave to open his shackles. He grabbed Prowl tightly by the neck before he could dart away and pulled him along. Off to the former torture room…


	4. Chapter 4

**Confrontation**

After checking the cameras and knowing that Hot Rod was seemingly sleeping on a crate, Megatron opened the door and shoved Prowl in. Immediately the pretty head of the younger autobot popped up at the rim of the box, observing them.

His face lit up when he saw his fellow autobot.

Megatron forced Prowl down to the ground to avoid getting attacked as soon as he took the cuffs off.

The autobot growled angrily when his face was pressed against the floor.

When he had removed the cuffs, Megatron shot up and quickly retreated through the door.

But Prowl didn't attack him, he darted off into the opposite direction, diving behind a crate.

Megatron locked the door quickly and hurried over to the control room to observe the confrontation of the two altered autobots.

To his surprise the control room was pretty crowded – Ravage was sitting on the windowsill again, Soundwave stood leaned against the far off wall, Starscream and even Scrapper had come here to see what was going to happen.

"Make way!" growled Megatron angrily and shoved Starscream aside to take the best place, sitting at the controls right in the middle of the window's length.

Hot Rod followed Prowl with his gaze.

His memory told him that he should see to it that they teamed up and planned how to get out of here.

But somehow he was hesitant. Something else in him that he couldn't quite grasp told him to be careful with approaching Prowl – that he might be dangerous.

Behind a box, Prowl sat back and licked his bloody dentals clean. The form of the long, sharp fangs was comfortingly familiar.

The blood tasted well…. He was still so damn hungry!

Holding his olfactory sensor up into the air, he could make out a very faint trail of energon.

Crouching on all fours, he carefully followed it.

It led him to a box and what he made out when he came closer was the warm, oily smell of another bot lurking up there…

Not up for a direct confrontation, Prowl sneaked over to another box and jumped up there.

Immediately he turned towards the other bot.

It gave him a feeling of recognition and peace to see the familiar form of Hot Rod.

The youngster was crouching on the box, pressed down flatly against its surface, eying him expectantly and with a streak of fear.

Prowl's logic circuits screamed at him to check if the youngster was alright, if he could talk and then plan how to get out of here.

But they were totally overlaid by his instinct to calm his raging hunger.

He realised with shock that he even considered the option to attack the younger bot, should he have energon and keep it from him.

Though consciously he was perfectly positive that he could speak, he somehow didn't feel the need to do that at all and instead gestured that he would jump over to Hot Rod's box.

The youngster didn't move or react.

It was a dangerous thing, perhaps he would be welcomed by claws and fangs, but Prowl decided to risk that, stood on the very edge of the box on all fours and made a wide jump.

Landing with his hands first, he braked his velocity and managed to put down his feet after another small jump. Anger came up in him…. Why was this working so badly? He knew he could jump far better than that! But somehow his arms and legs wouldn't do exactly as he said.

Immediately he turned his attention to Hot Rod.

The youngster was still pressed down to the box, his optics always following Prowl, and he had bared his dental bands slightly to reveal fangs just as long and sharp as Prowl had now.

It looked so right… Though when Prowl checked back on his memory, he knew that Hot Rod never had fangs before, he now wondered why he never noticed they had been missing. This looked far better, definitely!

The bared dental band was a clear warning to not intrude his personal space, and not wanting to enrage the youth, Prowl made a step back, granting him more room.

When he had done that, indicating that he was not aggressive, Hot Rod dared to rise a tad and crouched backwards until they both were at the very rim of the box, eying each other mistrustfully.

_This is immensely stupid,_Hot Rod thought, frantically scanning his memory. He damn knew Prowl! Why had he the feeling they were strangers? Why was the thing that he wanted to do to smell at him? Not just like… talk? But what was talk exactly? He clearly remembered being able to use such a communication method in the past. Yet suddenly it felt all alien to him.

But obviously the other one had the same intention – he carefully stretched out his head and sniffed.

Relieved, Hot Rod did the same and they tentatively inched closer until their faces nearly met. They both always gazed intensely at each other, reading the other's body language for signs of aggression and ready to pull back at the slightest hint of it.

The smell Hot Rod took in deeply implanted itself into his memory.

It was cold, steely, with a hint of gas and mechblood. Uniquely Prowl.

Prowl likewise analysed the smell of the other autobot. Hot Rod emanated a considerable amount of warmth, his heated surfaces seeped out a characteristic smell of hot metal. There was a good deal of oil and gas in his smell and a wisp of glowing rubber.

Instinctively following the trace of the enticing smell, Prowl leaned in closer, but obviously overstepped the border with it for Hot Rod abruptly pulled back, bared his fangs and hissed menacingly.

Pulling back slowly, Prowl showed that he had not intended to attack. The tension that suddenly had arisen faded again.

This time moving tentatively, Prowl inched closer and took up the smell of energon again.

When the younger bot again hissed warningly, he lost his patience with him, rose up and growled at him deeply, pinning him with his menacing gaze, to put him in his place.

Hot Rod felt threatened and intimidated and this time when the older mech drew closer accepted it, though unwillingly.

Up in the control room, the decepticons watched the scenario with feelings varying from utter satisfaction over awe to total irritation.

"What the slag is going on?" Starscream asked.

"It works" grumbled Megatron. "It works out perfectly! Soundwave! Do you have some energon goodies ready in Ravage's size?"

The officer pulled some goodies out of his cargo bay.

"Perfect." Megatron marched out and around the corner to the door of the torture room.

As soon as he punched in the code, the two autobots turned his way on their box, crouching on all fours, ready to jump.

"Hush, good boys" Megatron crooned "I have food for you! You must be hungry."

He placed the goodies down on the floor, slightly scattered. He was very curious to see who of the two would get most. When he had retreated, he rushed back up to the control room to not miss what was happening.

Prowl stared at the goodies and Hot Rod stared at him, waiting for a signal of the older one about what to do.

When he gave none, still waiting if something dangerous occurred, Hot Rod lost his patience, jumped off the box and ran for the goodies on all fours.

That did it, now Prowl also jumped off to get his part. With some jumps he had reached the younger bot, who just bent down and snatched the first goodie up.

Indignant about the impossible offence that the younger one ate first, Prowl gave him a hit with his claws and growled loudly at him.

Hot Rod crouched down and hissed back, but his body was speaking of his fear.

Unwilling, he backed away and had to watch how Prowl took up all three of the other goodies. Damn it, he was so hungry! How could he be so egoistic and take them all for himself?

But Prowl devoured the goodies without remorse and always when Hot Rod tried to approach him, he raised his head and bared his fangs in warning.

Immensely frustrated, Hot Rod circled around him in a safe distance, grumbling discontent.

When Prowl had eaten all the goodies, he gave Hot Rod a warning glare.

_There you have what you deserve for defying an older mech, young punk__!_ His body language told him.

Hot Rod mumbled angrily and retreated.

After the very tiny meal, Prowl began inspecting the room. He strode around every crate and box and marked some edges here and there by scratching his body along them, leaving traces of his paintjob.

Hot Rod watched it, lying on his box, spoiler dipped low, pouting. Stupid old tomcat! Thought he could own the place just because he was older than him!

Prowl even began to redecorate the room, shoving boxes up in a corner to form a shelter. Finally he lay down there and rolled up in a tight ball.

Snorting sadly, Hot Rod settled for staying on his box. At least the older one had left him alone. Somehow he knew deeply in his instincts that he could as well have attacked and killed him right away. Perhaps he should better not give him a reason to do so…

In the control room, Starscream shook his head, disbelieving.

"So… how did it come to that?"

"I had Soundwave replace their behaviour script via a virus with that of a cougar" Megatron finally explained. "I must say it works remarkably well."

"And… what's it good for?"

"At the moment just for my personal amusement. What it can bring us against the autobots – we will have to investigate further. On how deep the behaviour script changes a mech."

Suddenly Megatron grabbed Starscream and drove him with his back against a wall, held by his throat.

"Since it works so awfully well, I might think of using it… more often" he snarled.

Starscream's optics paled visibly, quite getting the threat.

Totally out of character, he opted for staying silent and not making a snappy remark.

By all means he didn't want to be turned into some wild robotic animal!

Megatron let him go and turned back to the controls.

He used a spinner to dim the light in the room down slowly.

"I will put the camera here up to the monitoring duty. Should they do something to get out that might get dangerous or turn against each other, use the electrocuting pads if necessary and immediately wake me from recharge. Otherwise leave them alone. Nobody does anything with them, understood?"

He gave mainly the curious Scrapper a deep, warning gaze.

The constructicon nodded, and Megatron waved them all out of the control room.

On his box, Hot Rod mourned his fate.

He felt horribly alone.

In his memory he knew that he had been together with a whole horde of other mechs and that he had felt quite comfortable there. To be stuck here with old Prowl alone was most unfortunate and made him really sad.

He rolled up, pulling his legs up tightly to his chest and bedding his head on his arms.

He missed something… strange, why didn't he have a tail to curl around himself…?

--

Prowl realised he only recharged sporadically. Every now and then he woke to check on his surroundings. Especially when he heard noises. But it always was only Hot Rod shifting on his box.

It took long until he had recharged his batteries that way and when suddenly the lights went on he found that more than seven hours had passed.

He immediately shot up onto all fours and looked out for the door.

Expectantly he trotted into its direction and jumped upon a crate.

Hot Rod was also awake he saw and observed him moving.

When he understood that Prowl was waiting for something to happen at the door, probably them getting food, he jumped off his box and drew nearer to the door, too, wanting to have a chance to snatch his part of the deal this time.

Prowl understood that quite well and it made him angry. That young jerk really had to learn where his place was!

Furious, he trotted over to him, directly approaching him.

When Hot Rod saw him coming, he turned to him but backed off backwards slightly while baring his fangs and hissing warningly.

What an outrage! Prowl thought. Did he not know that he had to follow his lead? That he had to show devotion and respect for the elder one? He would teach him manners!

Deliberately using that Hot Rod wasn't paying attention to his surroundings anymore, not daring to take his gaze off of Prowl, he drove him backwards against the wall where he could not escape so easily.

The hiss of the youngster grew sharper and lighter with fear when he knocked against the wall and the other one still came closer, quickly intruding into his comfort zone.

When he was but four meters away from Hot Rod, Prowl gave a deep, rumbling growl, doorwings highly erect, and tried to gaze the youngster down. But the thickhead wouldn't lower his gaze or show in any other way that he accepted the superiority of the elder one.

He wanted more drastic measures … so be it!

Prowl faked to shoot forth, raising a claw.

Hot Rod winced hard and shrieked, but did not run nor show his submission otherwise.

That made Prowl really angry now. He always had thought Hot Rod was an unbearable young thickhead, not knowing how to behave towards older mechs, why had he never taught him before?

His memory faintly suggested something about morale and civilisation… but the words meant nothing to him he found.

Without another warning, he launched forwards, claws spread out and mouth open, and gave the youth a cracking smack with his right paw.

Hot Rod cried out but instead of finally giving in, he hissed back, threatening to bite Prowl.

Enraged, the tactician attacked again, and to his surprise found himself entangled with Hot Rod in a fierce close combat.

Up from the control room Megatron watched the scene, taken aback.

So the behaviour script indeed was _tha__t_ important! So important that the autobots even forgot who their alleys were! Very interesting!

Prowl and Hot Rod curled on the floor, claws ripping deep scratches into armour and fangs sinking into joints and limbs. A good amount of hissing and growling was going on, mainly from the younger bot, and here and there a shriek of pain when a claw hit.

It was pretty scary and Megatron quickly recalled Soundwave's report – he had said cougars normally did _not_ fight until their deaths, had he not?

He was about to interfere when Prowl finally managed to throw Hot Rod to his back and bit into his bare throat.

The younger bot shrieked with pain and fear when the sharp fangs sank into his dermaplates, scratching important tubes and cables in his neck.

He stilled, paralysed with fear of death, now definitely not willing to challenge the older one further.

For a good minute Prowl held him still by his throat, then he carefully opened his jaw wide, pulling his fangs out of Hot Rod's throat, and stared down at the youth threateningly.

Hot Rod's face was twisted with pain, fear and humiliation and he whined lowly like a kitten. His hands were hanging bent in the air, indicating no further intention of fight.

Satisfied, Prowl gave him a slight nod and Hot Rod carefully rolled around, getting back on all fours. Ducked and with his spoiler tipped, he pulled back, beaten.

_Let this be a lesson to you! _ Prowl thought.

Confident that the youngster had given up, at least for now, he turned his attention back to the door, waiting.

Megatron rubbed his helmet half amused, half shocked. That had obviously been a rank fight between the two! And it definitely hadn't been a harmless struggle.

He had to be careful.

Equipping himself with an electro crop, he went over to the torture room.

When he opened the door, he immediately stared at Prowl warningly, but the autobot made no move to come closer.

Indeed he pulled back a little when the huge silver mech stepped in.

"Yeah, that's the way, good boy!" Megatron praised. Inside he was laughing about himself. And Prowl. That he could one day say that to the uptight tactician without getting revenge was priceless!

But quite obviously, the autobot didn't mind to be called "good boy" right now.

He was all attention and sniffed, smelling the energon Megatron had brought along.

"Yeah, I have tasty energon for you, right" Megatron told him, placed a dish on the floor and filled it with fresh, pink energon.

He was not sure about how he should handle the rivalry between the two bots and decided that he would offer a second dish for Hot Rod, but with less energon in it. He was sure the young bot needed energy badly, and he didn't want him to starve into deactivation only because Prowl oppressed him.

Indeed Hot Rod had inched closer and closer, eyeing the energon greedily.

Prowl stared at him warningly.

"Now come on, you have to leave the little bot some, too" Megatron told him. But that seemingly was no option for the tactician. He wandered over to the dish Megatron had placed more in Hot Rod's direction and sniffed at it. As soon as Hot Rod made a move to get to the other dish, he growled at him threateningly.

The youngster was quite obviously torn between fear and his immense hunger.

When after a minute or so he had not tried to run for the energon, Prowl gave him an appreciating nod and returned to "his" bowl – leaving that with less energon untouched.

Hot Rod immediately ran for it, understanding that the older mech had allowed him to take it, dipped his lips in and drank greedily.

Prowl snorted angrily about him. He was not heeding his surroundings at all! When he stayed incautious like that he would never grow old.

Prowl himself settled at his bowl in a way that he could keep his optics on both Megatron leaning against the wall beside the door and Hot Rod slurping his energon.

Never taking his gaze off the others, Prowl slowly lowered his head and began to lick the energon up.

He was getting a little angry with that, for somehow it didn't work in the way he had expected. His tongue was quite imperfect! It was much too short and thick.

Finally he gave into his horrible hunger and also dipped his lips in, sucking the tasty energon up. It was so good to have his empty belly filled!

Standing at the door with his arms crossed, Megatron observed them and thought about how he should proceed with this.

So far it looked as if he could really win the cougarbot's loyalty by just treating them "good" – giving them food and shelter. It was fascinating that they were obviously not heeding that he kept them captive in the first place and let them starve intentionally.

He was surprised that they had not shown outright aggression towards him so far. He really hadn't expected that so much of a mech's personality depended on their behaviour script. That you seemingly even could erase the loyalty towards a faction through it. He would need to investigate that further.

He was tempted to make some experiments with that. But he told himself to be patient. To hasten things now might lead to the failure of the whole experiment. When the aggression of the cougarbots turned towards him, he would probably have no other choice than to shoot them. Or well, remove the wrong behaviour script. Though he had not told him to do so, he was rather sure that overly-thoughtful Soundwave would have made a back-up of the original behaviour script of the two autobots.

Hot Rod had drunken his energon up and looked full of jealousy over at Prowl, who was still drinking.

Oh Megatron so wanted to play with him.

He practically saw the cougar there, whipping her tail in anticipation, yellow eyes fixed on the object of her interest.

Not able to resist, Megatron pulled out an energon goodie. Immediately Hot Rod's head shot up and he looked at him. After some seconds of thought, he set into motion, crawling towards him.

"Good boy, good boy!" crooned Megatron and waved the energon goodie at Hot Rod. "Come and get it."

Prowl raised his head and his face was telling of his disdain.

Also Hot Rod was torn inside.

He damn remembered that he should hate this big silver guy. There was something, yeah, he was a decepticon. The decepticons were the enemies. And he even was their.... horde leader. His memories told him that he was trying to steal the energy of this planet they lived on.

But... why was it that he cared? As long as the energy landed in his belly through a tasty energon goodie?

Was it not the most important thing in his life to be sated?

He took another few steps towards the silvery mech.

"Yes, good!" he was encouraged.

When this horde leader was so very friendly, how could he be the enemy? Hot Rod asked himself. When he offered him food, more so than his own pack leader Prowl!

But still there was fear implanted deeply within him that kept him from closing the distance. The other mech was so immensely huge!

One hit with his paw would send Hot Rod to the other end of the room, he was sure. Should he suddenly get angry at him, he would be dead.

Instinctively he ducked low, pressing his chest to the floor with his forelegs stretched out, imitating the "I want to play!" signal of young cubs, trying to appease the mighty foreign mech.

Prowl hissed warningly at him, quite understanding that he was trying to make friends with the enemy pack's leader.

Torn between the loyalty towards his of pack and the desire to improve his situation by perhaps joining that mighty other mech's pack, Hot Rod insecurely rocked himself.

Prowl made some steps towards him, head lowered, piercing him with a sharp gaze from below his chevron, menacing.

G_et yourself away from the enemy_! he told him with it.

Scared by the direct threat of the other, Hot Rod backed off, his dental bands bared in a "I'm afraid, when you come closer, I will bite!" manner.

Prowl drove him back into the room, away from Megatron, but meanwhile always having an optic for the silver mech.

Megatron watched the scenario amused.

What should he do? Give the energon goodie to Prowl? That would fore sure lead to a fierce jealousy between the two.

Perhaps he better let the indecision of the youngster work for him.

Making a regretting face, he tucked the energon goodie back in a cargo bay and left.


	5. Chapter 5

**Taming**

"It's maddening!" Jazz exclaimed.

Now a whole day had passed and there was still no message of the decepticons.

The spy sound had only shown Megatron dragging Prowl out of the room after observing how Scrapper went in the quarter of an hour before.

When it had followed the decepticon leader, it was suddenly turned off – probably destroyed, perhaps by Soundwave, who had still been in the room they had observed.

Now they were totally without information about their fellow autobots and the decepticons still made no offer.

It was making Jazz feel horribly helpless to know that there was nothing they could to. Stupid decepticons! Even when they managed to take some decepticons captive and offer them in return for Prowl and Hot Rod – Megatron would not do it because of him not caring a bit about his troops. Plus he could rely on the autobots treating their war captives well.

It was so unfair to be an autobot fighting against the malicious decepticons.

--

Hot Rod had retreated to his box again after the near-beating he had received from Prowl.

Mourning his own fate, he cursed the older autobot.

He could talk! He got a whole full bowl of energon! But what was it with him? He only got a half! And then Prowl beat him up for wanting that energon goodie the silver mech had offered!

He was still so hungry! The energon had barely made up for the very low energy status he had – but he was still far away from being sated.

What should he do?

He was inclined to change packs and go with the silver bot. But somehow it also made him sad.

Finally he decided he wanted to give Prowl another chance.

He jumped off the box and made for Prowl's lair in the far corner of the room.

The older mech recharged, but woke when the noises of Hot Rod crawling came closer.

He rose to his hands and feet, looking at the youngster expectantly.

Hot Rod ducked low and purred assuasive, showing that he meant no harm.

To spare the youngster the need to invade his very lair, Prowl came out a few steps to greet him on neutral ground.

He stood high, with his back arched up and doorwings stiffly pointing upwards.

The younger bot crouched low, nearly pulling his chest over the floor, and licked his dental band nervously.

_Finally he accepted where his place is!_ thought Prowl and relaxed a little, doorwings sinking. He tended to allow the youngster closer and slowly stepped forth, setting down his hands and feet with concentrated precision.

Hot Rod suffered him invading his personal space and lay still, only hissing slightly, while the older bot sniffed at him, beginning at his face and then slowly drawing his olfactory sensors over his shoulder and along his back and then downwards, practically stuffing his olfactory sensor into Hot Rod's waist to take in the smell that emanated through his seams from his central core.

Finally he pulled back and allowed the youth to rise with that.

Hot Rod came to all fours again and twisted around, stretching his head out to smell at Prowl carefully.

Since the older one showed no hint of defence he slowly proceeded from just smelling at him from a safe distance to drawing closer, driving his face along the edges of Prowl's hood.

The smell of that powerful engine was exquisite, he found.

He wanted to make a friendship offer and licked his lips insecurely.

Prowl understood him right and made the first step, pulling forwards and licking over Hot Rod's cheek.

It gave the youngster a wave of pleasant feelings to receive that gesture of affection from the older bot and he purred and scurried forwards, pulling along Prowl's side, rubbing against him.

Prowl stood firmly against him, and when Hot Rod was past him, they both turned and repeated the gesture, rubbing their sides against each other, leaving scratches of their paintjob on the other to mark them belonging together.

Megatron's fans hummed loudly.

Primus, this was damn hot.

Considering his options he thought that he could surely gain Hot Rod with feeding him. But when he won his trust with that, he would lose all chances with Prowl he was sure. The proud old tactician would never forgive him when he seduced the youngster to follow him.

So he should perhaps better aim for gaining Prowl's trust first, and with him automatically the youngster, too. Then he would have the fun of two damn interesting cougarbots on his command. That was sure better.

So with what should he gain Prowl's loyalty?

Subduing him? Perhaps to win a rank fight against him would show him who the master was in this and he would submit to Megatron's superior power. But on the other hand that would lead to a second Starscream – a subject that was far from loyal, but only waiting for him to make one wrong move to overpower him. Prowl was far too dangerous to have him in such a state.

Perhaps he would have to let them starve even more and then pretend he was saving them by giving them energon.

Hot Rod was relieved that Prowl was so nice to him. It already felt much better to have that bad temper erased between them.

When they had greeted each other sufficiently, Hot Rod made a few playful jumps and then pressed his chest down again, looking at Prowl expectantly.

He damn needed to improve his motion! It felt strange and imperfect to him. What would be better for that than a good playing round?

Prowl didn't seem convinced, so Hot Rod darted away and jumped on a box, trying to animate Prowl to chase after him.

Finally the proud old tomcat gave in and followed him.

As soon as he reached the box, Hot Rod jumped off of it and hid behind another crate before Prowl could gaze over the rim of the box.

For a moment Prowl considered quitting.

Playing with the youngster! That was far below him.

But on the other hand – since his legs and arms quite didn't do what he wanted them to, it seemed he somehow needed some training. Why ever he had unlearned what he could do before.

Giving in with a sigh, he dropped off the box, trying to make a concentrated landing on all fours. Then he sniffed and followed the trail of smell and heat to make out Hot Rod behind his crate.

As soon as he caught sight of him, the youngster ran away again and Prowl set up for the chase.

--

Megatron chuckled and while observing the two bots playing chasing games reread the message he had received from the autobots.

"We know you have taken the autobots Prowl and Hot Rod captive. What do you want in turn for them being safely returned to us? – Optimus Prime."

"At the moment I am not willing to make any trade concerning them" he wrote. "But rest assured, they are well."

Finally he decided to send the message. He had planned and cancelled several tries but by now he was sick of dancing around the subject. He didn't want to give the autobots away, period. Prime would have to deal with it.

Megatron quite knew he was in the stronger position and that Prime would not dare a direct assault, especially not since Megatron could at all time threaten to rip his precious fellow autobots into pieces. Nice side effect that he had the mighty Prime at his mercy.

This was definitely getting better and better.

--

After a good hour of chasing and skill games, Prowl ended the playtime and returned to his lair. He was damn tired – and damn hungry.

Seeing that Prowl was not up to more playing and feeling tired himself, Hot Rod also began to form himself a lair by shoving some boxes together. He built his lair close to Prowl now, and the old tomcat allowed it.

Satisfied except for his horrible hunger, Hot Rod went to recharge.

Megatron knew that he had to feed them soon. With all this chasing they would have used up a good deal of energy – and the supply they had was less than meagre.

He decided to give them energon goodies and also offer them some rubbercookies, for their little rank fight had sure damaged some tubes and cable coating that would need to be rebuild by their self repair system.

Having those things and his electro crop ready, he went over to the "cougars cage".

As soon as he stepped into the room he felt two pairs of optics on him.

He knelt down some meters away from the door in open space and picked out the energon goodies.

"Here, good boys, food for you!"

Hot Rod immediately jumped out of his lair and made for him, but he always looked back to Prowl to see if he wanted to interfere and in a safety distance from Megatron he sat down on his aft and waited for Prowl's reaction.

The older bot slowly came closer, honouring his name.

Coming to a halt beside Hot Rod, he stared intensely at Megatron.

"Now now, do you want to stare me down?" the decepticon said with a slightly sharp edge to his voice. "You will not succeed. You know I'm stronger than you, and you demanded of Hot Rod to accept you as the stronger and older one. So how can you behave differently towards me?"

Prowl showed no reaction, but from Hot Rod's agreeing face Megatron saw that they quite understood his words.

But weird, he had not heard them speak ever since he had replaced their behaviour script.

"So, do you want to take the energon I offer you or not?" asked Megatron sinisterly and threw an energon goodie into their direction.

Hot Rod jerked, ready to jump, but rethought in the last moment and looked at Prowl, hesitatingly.

In Prowl there was a battle raging.

He was so damn hungry! And it seemed Megatron was the only one who could offer them food! Their district was somehow totally void of nourishment! How had they ended up in this bad place anyway? It had something to do with Megatron, but he couldn't completely recall it.

So in fact they only had two choices – deny and starve to death. Or accept the fate that the enemy had the food and they had to accept it from him.

It was not really a hard decision, though it made Prowl's pride squirm in pain within him.

He gave Hot Rod a slight nod, and immediately the youngster shot forth, snatched the goodie up with his dental band, returned to the safety of Prowl's side and greedily ate it.

Prowl left him the one energon goodie they had been offered! Realised Hot Rod. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all!

But the silver mech was even better for giving them the food.

Expectantly Hot Rod looked at him, waiting for more.

Megatron threw another small goodie, this time having it land a little closer to himself.

A warning grumble held Hot Rod back, and this time it was Prowl who carefully drew forth, his optics never leaving Megatron.

He didn't even look down for a single second when he took up the goodie with his lips and then retreated backwards.

"Good, see, it's good energon, and I'm not bad for you" crooned Megatron encouragingly.

He broke a rubber cookie in two and threw both halves to them.

Hot Rod quickly shot forth and bit his part.

This time he didn't bother to draw back again and ate it where he sat.

Prowl drew up to him, though unwillingly, and took the other part of the cookie, eating it up.

"Good" praised Megatron and picked out another energon goodie.

Hot Rod's face was all ablaze with glee. Food! So much food finally!

He ducked and looked at Megatron expectantly, waiting for him to throw the cookie.

Chuckling, Megatron did, and the cougarbot shot forth and snatched it as soon as it hit the floor.

After that, Megatron tried to lure Prowl closer, but the old tactician wouldn't move. Even when he threw a goodie only a meter away from his hands, resting side by side on the floor in front of him, he wouldn't try to get it.

When noticing that, Hot Rod quickly took it for himself and obviously Prowl didn't mind.

Megatron saw with satisfaction that he could draw Hot Rod closer and closer to his position with the food.

When it were only some meters between them, he held out a goodie on his hand.

Hot Rod's pretty face darkened with fear.

"Now, come, have I ever caused you harm?" Megatron asked innocently.

Deep in his spark Hot Rod knew he had – but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Afraid, he pressed is chest down to the floor again and begged prettily for Megatron to throw the goodie, mewing like a little kitty.

How sweet. Megatron did throw the goodie, but Hot Rod had to dart forth a little more to get it.

Finally he rose to fetch the two dishes he had left there. The cougarbots retreated a little into a safe distance when he moved.

Megatron refilled the dishes, one with more, one with less energon.

The one with little energon he placed a good deal away from himself, then he sat back down and shoved the rim full dish only two meters away.

Patiently he waited for the autobots' reactions.

He saw how Prowl's mouth dropped open with the view of so much tasty energon. Hot Rod squirmed, rocking back and forth, and finally set into motion – very carefully drawing closer and closer to Megatron.

Prowl watched the youngster. He was disappointed that his loyalty towards his own pack melted away so easily. But on the other hand he couldn't blame him. At the moment Megatron was the only one who offered them sustenance, the only reason for which they stayed alive.

And even he would die if he didn't overcome his pride now and took the energon the enemy had placed ready for him.

It was such a humiliation it physically hurt him.

But his empty digestion unit hurt even more.

With an unhappy growl he stood up to all fours and marched over to the other bowl, dipping his lips in and drinking.

When Hot Rod saw that, his hesitation was gone and he quickly crawled forth to the full bowl and drank greedily – not heeding that he was but mere meters away from Megatron.

The decepticon leader was all still now, he didn't want to scare the youngster off again.

He let him drink in peace.

Only when Prowl had emptied his bowl and looked at him he threw another energon goodie at him.

The tactician didn't jump right for it, as the youngster would have done, but slowly, resigned, took it up and chewed on it.

_So you are finally accepting your fate, though slowly._ Megatron thought and smiled smugly.

To be a beast tamer was not so hard after all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Struggle**

_Warning: It begins to get mature here with slashy tendencies – please don't read on if you are offended by that. _

Prime had called the council of the autobots for a meeting.

Its members were Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Red Alert and normally Prowl.

They sat in a small conference room in the Ark.

Prime quite realised that Jazz was very agitated.

"I have news from the decepticons" Optimus explained, coming directly to the point, not wanting to strain the thin patience especially of his second in command any further.

"And?"

"He won't trade. The complete message was: At the moment I am not willing to make any trade concerning them. But rest assured they are well. That's all. I can draw a little hope from the phrase "At the moment." So it seems he considers turning them in in the future. But on the other hand – I don't feel good about it at all because it practically tells us that he is making some kind of experiment with them he is not willing to interrupt right now."

Jazz covered his mouth in shock. "And now?" he asked fearfully.

But only embarrassed silence was his answer.

--

Prowl was prowling around in the room impatiently. Again and again he walked the confinement he found incredibly small. Very far back in his mind he remembered being … free. Walking landscapes. Seeing a sky. He could not explain to himself why he was not there anymore. He had the feeling that they had been put here and that it somehow was the fault of that silver mech.

Megatron, he reminded himself. His name was Megatron. And he was the leader of the evil other pack.

They belonged to another pack, a good pack, and back there they had food and shelter. And they had a mighty pack leader they all respected.

He was feeling frustrated. He wanted to get out of here, he wanted to go home. But he had no idea how he should.

And he was angry, too. Angry that they had to submit to Megatron when they didn't want to starve to death. Angry that Hot Rod gave in so easily.

Again and again he turned the thoughts around in his head. How could they get out?

He had thought about attacking Megatron. Naturally. But something deep within told him that it was a very bad idea.

And he trusted that feeling deep within.

Again when he passed the door he smelled at it, tried to find out how it worked and get out. As often before, he failed.

Angrily grumbling, he trotted further along the wall.

Hot Rod was lying in his lair, observing the older bot, and finally had enough of his prowling.

He stood up and drew towards him, meeting him in his way.

Trying to relax the clearly tense older bot he made a playful face and strode around in front of him.

But to his shock his calming signal was not received well at all. Prowl bared his dental band and hissed at him aggressively, not slowing in his pace and threatening to run right into him if he wouldn't make way.

Disappointed and also a little offended, Hot Rod saw to getting out of his way, grumbling furiously.

Prowl crawled past him and Hot Rod followed him with his gaze. He had to admit Prowl was moving with astonishing grace and speed. His quadruped pace had a wonderful rhythmic pattern and his body was swinging agilely with every step.

It made Hot Rod feel awe for the older mech and gave him a strange urge to please him. He wanted that the older mech respected him, too! He wanted to be agile and skilful like him!

And… he so wanted to eat! He was so horribly hungry!

Sad, he searched around in the room and sniffed at the floor where the silver mech had given them food. With difficulties he found some spots of spilled energon and in his desperation licked them up.

Then he made for the door, sat right before it and called out for the silver mech.

Long, accusing mewing resounded in the room.

Prowl looked up and a wave of anger flared up in him. What was that useless cub doing there? Playing up to the enemy again! How could he? Had he no pride at all, no loyalty?

He would teach him!

Determined he made straight for the youngster.

Up in the control room Starscream stood, arms crossed, watching.

Very fascinating. At last Megatron had really managed to develop something seriously interesting. And for a change it seemed to even work. It was really astonishing to see how that behaviour script obviously turned those autobots completely inside out.

The scientist in him was deeply impressed.

But another part of him was… downright scared. He hadn't thought it was so easy to change a bot's mind. And now that Megatron had knowledge of that… he was in a constant danger of being reprogrammed into some wild animal of Megatron's liking, submitted to its basic and predictable instincts.

He by no means wanted that. And in secret he considered sabotaging the project somehow to make the world safer for him again…

Prowl gave a little warning growl when he drew nearer, but seemingly Hot Rod didn't hear it or outright ignored it.

He asked for it…

Prowl jumped for him with a hiss.

The mew Hot Rod had just given turned into a shocked shriek when suddenly Prowl clashed up against him from behind. Instinctively he turned around and raised his claws to defend himself.

Quickly he unwound himself from the grip of the older bot and jumped away. Prowl followed suit and had quickly reached the younger one. With one powerful jump he was on his back, throwing him down to the floor.

Hot Rod shrieked in fear, not understanding what he had done to deserve this. He turned to his back, dentals bared and claws up to protect his chest and throat while Prowl was trying to get a safe hold on him, straddling his body with his legs and pinning him down with standing his hands on his hood.

The cub made whining noises and his face told of the shock and confusion he felt.

Prowl hissed down at him, doorwings dipped, and finally Hot Rod understood.

He hated it that he had called for the silver mech.

But he was so hungry! He didn't want to starve anymore! And the only way to escape starvation was the silver mech obviously!

A little defiance came up in him. What right did Prowl have to tell him what he was to do?

His face darkened and he snapped at Prowl to get him off.

The older one didn't take that well at all, he slashed his paw across Hot Rod's shoulder, giving him four deep scratches in the armour which started to bleed immediately.

Suddenly Prowl experienced a very frightening rush of feelings. He was not used to feelings! What was going on?

Everything seemed to happen much slower when the tact of his processors was suddenly overclocked a good deal, he broke out into cold when his fans all spun quicker and… his mouth watered, ready to bite and devour. The smell of blood invading his olfactory sensors in his starved state was absolutely crushing all his control.

In shock he stared down at the younger bot beneath him and for a moment really considered giving him a deadly throat bite and eat him up. The blood smelled so incredible!

The youngster writhed under him, crying out in pain from the injury, and tried to wriggle out of his grip.

When he couldn't free himself, his panic bordered in a self-defence reaction and he also lashed out with all his strength.

His clawed hand smashed into Prowl's hood, ripping deep wounds into it and smashing his left headlight.

He tried to kick out, too, and gave Prowl a strong thrust into his abdomen, denting the metal.

The tactician growled in pain, but his aggressive mood had suddenly turned into something else… something he could even control less…

Starscream decided to call Megatron up.

When the decepticon leader found out he was standing here and not warning him about what was going on he would be mad. And Starscream surely didn't want Megatron mad at him right now.

"Megatron? I'm at the torture room, the 'bots are fighting each other rather fiercely."

"I'll be there in a minute."

Prowl sank down deeper though he brought himself even closer in attack range and immediately received another hit, this time to his shoulder from the hissing and writhing youngster.

He ignored it for his feeling of defence was totally overlaid by something else…

Desire.

The youngster with his fighting was rubbing him strongly on the insides of his thighs. It went right into his groin, where his interface plug abruptly inched outwards, pressing against his hip armour from the inside.

Totally paralysed he stared down at Hot Rod and nothing else mattered than his one desire. His desire to mate with him.

Far in the back something was raving mad about the thought alone, but somehow it was vanishingly weak in comparison to his instinct. And his instinct told him that Hot Rod was a damn fine looking bot with high breeding quality – he was young, possessed a well-constructed, quick yet durable model and was, as far as Prowl knew, unused so far. And that smell… that smell emanating from every seam of his – it was fresh, strong and clean, telling a story about how wonderfully his body worked. It practically asked for being spread to further generations.

So his instinct dictated Prowl to hold the squirming youngster down and ram his plug into his interface device, with our without his consent, to teach him a lesson in dominance once and for all. And fulfil his burning need.

Hot Rod was gnawing on his lower arm and indeed Prowl let go a bit. Just enough for Hot Rod to turn around to all fours to dart away – but before he could escape, Prowl grabbed him again, pushed him down by biting into his neck and ripped his hips up.

For a moment Hot Rod was paralysed in panic, then he screamed out in fear and terror when Prowl's fingers sought the seams of his hip armour and forced them open.

Bucking strongly Hot Rod tried to get out of the older mech's grip, but in his panic-dazed state he had no chance against the war-hardened, calculating tactician.

When he realised defiance wouldn't get him anywhere, Hot Rod fell all lax and made tiny mewing sounds, pleading for mercy.

--

Megatron rushed up to the control room. What he saw made his optics grow big. That slagging bastard Prowl had mounted Hot Rod from behind with obvious intentions! Unbelievable!

To Megatron's surprise a wave of great rage came over him. But at the moment he had no time to assess what had caused it – he just grabbed an electro crop to be able to hold the wild cougarbots off without needing to seriously harm them and sprinted out.

--

Prowl's armour had opened and his plug already touched against Hot Rod's aft. He only had to rip the armour further open…

But something was stopping him. While an overwhelming need told him to have his way with the youngster by the right of the stronger one, there was another feeling, a feeling that responded right to Hot Rod's pitiful mewing. That feeling told him to spare the poor little cub, to protect it from harm and danger.

Torn between the two instincts, he hesitated. And suddenly the door of the room opened and Megatron stormed in.

"Get off of him you horny piece of slag!" he barked, swinging an electro crop.

Prowl was so distracted by his appearance that Hot Rod could escape from his grip and dart away.

Seeing the big silver mech approaching him with threatening aggressiveness, Prowl preferred to get lost, too, but not without hissing angrily at Megatron.

Hot Rod had jumped on a crate, always keeping an optic on Prowl, scared to the core.

The older mech trotted off to his lair and positioned himself there, ready to fight should Megatron decide to follow him.

For moment Megatron was pretty confused. What the hell had brought Prowl to humping Hot Rod?

Quickly he thought about how he should behave to use the situation in his favour.

It would be very easy now to gain Hot Rod. The youngster was clearly in need of protection, and Megatron was sure as soon as he offered, the youngster would be his'. But Prowl? He didn't want to lose Prowl.

But perhaps the tactician would feel kind of a guilty conscience now that he had nearly raped the younger mech? He was an autobot after all!

"Prowl!" he called. "You mean, evil cougarbot! How can you violate the… the cub?" he tried to formulate in a way that would fit the altered behaviour scripts.

The black and white mech cringed and ducked, doorwings sagging.

Megatron had to grin a little to himself. Obviously he caught him alright!

"Fie! Shame on you! I thought better of you than to give into your basic needs so easily!" he accused him.

Up on the crate, Hot Rod listened in awe. How good and noble the silver mech was! He defended him! Suddenly he had a strong desire to run for him and stroke around his legs and purr.

But still a little hesitation held him back. Prowl wouldn't like that at all.

"It seems I have to separate you then" told Megatron. "When you are not able to protect the youngster of your own pack."

That was when Prowl stood up and growled angrily.

He could protect his youngster!

His spark felt icy cold about his shame. He had totally failed in his task to keep the youth from harm and … from turning over to the enemy.

Horrible regret moved him and he paced on the place nervously. How should he regain Hot Rod's trust now that he had personally attacked him? How could he come to that anyway?

"Stay where you are!" Megatron barked and raised the crop into his direction. Then he left in a hurry.

Hot Rod meowed pitifully after him and it made Prowl's spark twist.

There he had it, now the youth was whining after the enemy's pack leader and was scared of him! He was so angry he could bite his own tail…

Turning in circles he wanted to do just that … and realised he had no tail.

Frustration riding him, he carefully drew a little closer to Hot Rod on his crate and meowed into his direction to get his attention.

Bright scared optics turned at him and Hot Rod retreated to the farthest edge of his crate, eying him in panic.

Showing his regret and good will, Prowl pressed his chest down to the floor, doorwings tipped down.

"I'm sorry!" his pose said.

It relieved Hot Rod a little. But still it could not wipe out the fear the incident had implanted in the youngster. The wild fury and determination which had so suddenly overcome Prowl was so alien that he now had the feeling he couldn't assess his behaviour at all anymore.

Carefully Prowl drew nearer, but when he was about ten meters away from Hot Rod's crate, panic was overcoming the youngster and he began to cry out loud, like a cub wailing for its mother when a predator came close to kill it.

Very hurt and ashamed, Prowl pulled back again.

He trotted to his lair and curled up into a tight ball, miserable.

Now Hot Rod's spoiler sagged, too, and he felt a little guilty for making the other bot so unhappy. But then again he couldn't help it. He had wanted to calm him down – and had nearly got force-mated for it. Though he was but a cub!

Something in Hot Rod squirmed with the thought. How could he think of himself as a mere cub?

But… he was, wasn't he?

While those thoughts were still battling in him, the door opened again and Megatron came back in.

Seemingly nothing had changed. But now he marched right for Prowl's lair.

The tactician jumped up and fear crawled into his systems. Every circuit snapped to full alert.

"I'm very angry with you" Megatron told him, growling. "And very disappointed. I thought the cub was safe with you. Seems it isn't."

Prowl wanted to scream, to protest, to assure him that he would protect the cub no matter what – but only a pitiful wail came from his voice processor that betrayed that he wouldn't trust his own promise anymore.

Megatron arched an optic ridge at him and then proceeded further towards him.

Prowl hissed, baring his sharp fangs, when he bluntly invaded his personal space. But to his concern the enemy didn't show the slightest sign of fear. Instead his red optics were unyieldingly turned at him. His whole body language unmistakably told him: I'm going to crush you to tiny pieces when you oppose me.

And it had its effect on Prowl, his instinct dictated him to rescue his chassis no matter what.

So he with a shriek darted away when Megatron came threateningly close.

The silver mech followed him, finding pleasure in the game himself, and chased him around in the room.

Until he had herded the protesting Prowl into a corner.

Then he grinned, stepped back a little, and suddenly a loud sound occurred and a fence fell down around the corner of the room, caging Prowl in.

The cougarbot shrieked in shock and jumped against the fence, trying to get out – but it was far too strong.

"Strong enough to hold a seeker in" Megatron told him with a smirk. But then he became serious again.

"You're an evil cougarbot. And a danger for the cub. That's why I have to cage you in. Think about it, you nasty, evil tomcat."

Deep inside Megatron found the speech he was using hilarious, but obviously it worked. Prowl screamed in a high-pitched meowing, protesting, and stroking around in the small cage.

With a final nod, Megatron left him there and turned to the door.

On the way he smiled at a horrified looking Hot Rod and placed an energon goodie on the floor for him. Then he walked out.

As soon as he had locked the door, he jumped up to the control room to observe what happened.

Starscream was still standing there with his arms crossed, face a grimace of confusion and spite.

But Megatron was in a far too good mood to have it spoiled by his second in command.

Curious, he gazed down into the torture room.

Prowl still paced his small cage and growled and meowed protesting.

Hot Rod obviously needed some time to gather his courage. Sticking his head far out from the crate, he eyed the energon goodie greedily.

Finally he jumped down and carefully crawled towards it, occasionally looking out for Prowl. But of course the older bot couldn't come and hit him for taking the goodie.

Hungry still, Hot Rod jumped the final few meters and snatched the goodie up. He gulped it down in one bite.

He felt a little bad about that he hadn't even considered offering Prowl some. But after what the older one had been about to do to him… who could blame him?

Still he wanted to see if he could help Prowl somehow and carefully drew nearer to the cage.

Prowl thought he would go mad. The cage was so small! So horribly small! When he had already felt bothered by the confines of the whole room, he now was downright claustrophobic. The bars seemed to press in on him, and every turn he made reminded him about the barriers around him.

It was driving him up the walls!

Hot Rod saw the desperation in the optics of the other, and it stirred pity in him.

Quickly he came closer and meowed calmingly.

Finally Prowl noticed him in his frenzy and pushed himself against the bars, biting them in a need to get out.

Understanding that he didn't want to get out to harm him but just because he was going crazy in the small room, Hot Rod decided he wanted to help him.

Also Hot Rod bit into the bars to test their strength – but no way, they were far too thick and of a very durable material.

Relief flooded Prowl about the reaction of the youngster. At least he hadn't given him up all together! He was even coming and trying to help him.

After a while of futile tries to break the bars, Hot Rod sat down on his aft in front of them and stuck his face in through them, licking his lips.

Fearful, but with a little hope, Prowl carefully inched forwards and offered Hot Rod his cheek.

The youngster let his glossa dart out and licked the cheek guard of his helmet.

Prowl sighed deeply. The gesture was incredibly calming in his current agitated state.

Closing his optics in bliss, he pressed his face against the bars from the inside and Hot Rod licked it tenderly, relishing in the feeling that he could help the older bot.

Up in the control room Megatron rubbed his chin in wonder. Strange. The binding between the two autobots was obviously stronger than he had expected. After this incident he had thought Hot Rod would never forgive Prowl. But there he was, licking the older mech's face.

Obviously he still would have to learn much until he saw through the cougarbots programming…


	7. Chapter 7

**Break**

Megatron observed the cougarbots for quite a while.

Hot Rod was prettily caressing the older mech, who had experienced a fit of panic when he had been caged in so suddenly. It calmed Prowl down, and after nearly half an hour of savouring to be licked and head-rubbed through the bars by the youngster, Prowl began anew to check the cage for weak spots.

Megatron knew perfectly well that there were none – not even Starscream could get out of that cage, and he wasn't behaviour-altered into a cougar.

After a while Hot Rod moved away from the cage. Immediately Prowl sat right at the bars and meowed for him.

The youngster turned around once, giving him a glance and shortly bowed his chest down to the floor, acknowledging that he had heard him, but then continued his way.

Prowl was silent now but followed him with his gaze.

Hot Rod began to disassemble his lair and shoved the crates over to the cage. There he built a new lair right beside it.

Up in the control room, Megatron chuckled. How disgustingly sweet. Still so loyal that he would even build up his camp close to the imprisoned fellow.

Hot Rod was obviously tired and settled down in his lair after turning around a few times in it. His back was leaned against the bars, offering Prowl the closest contact they could get.

The old tactician felt immensely bad.

After having done such a nasty thing to the innocent youth he was still helping him so much!

He really had to make up for that somehow and regain the trust of the cub.

Carefully he drew closer to him. He sniffed at the spoiler which was slightly sticking into his cage.

Hot Rod only tiredly opened one optic but didn't wince back.

So Prowl tentatively proceeded and gently licked the yellow spoiler.

Hot Rod's face curled up into a smile. Prowl was nice to him! That was feeling so incredibly good!

After a while Prowl also lay down, feeling very exhausted after his fight with Hot Rod and the chase with Megatron. He also pressed himself against the bars, slightly touching the youngster through the gaps.

To his surprise, Hot Rod began purring.

The sound was wonderfully calming and lulling and though he was very agitated, Prowl soon fell into recharge with the feeling of the other bot close by.

Megatron dimmed the lights down and left the control room. It was late, and he also retired to recharge. But before he went to sleep, he plotted how he should proceed in this wonderfully interesting experiment.

--

Prowl was horribly hungry and woke often in the night. Of course nothing changed, no food miraculously appeared. It was dark, but he always found young Hot Rod close by, peacefully sleeping. It was a little soothing, but it sure didn't fill his empty digestion unit.

Damn it, when he didn't soon find sustenance he would go offline!

He got weaker with every hour, with every rev of his engines eating up his fuel reserves to load his batteries.

When in the next morning the light went on, he was lying all still on his side, doorwings sticking out of the cage to keep in touch with Hot Rod. He didn't move when the light went on, just his optics onlined.

Hot Rod woke and rose. He had a good stretch, arching his back and whetting his claws on the floor.

Then he immediately checked on Prowl.

When he found the tactician wasn't moving, he meowed, concerned, and nudged his doorwings with his head.

Weakly Prowl turned his face up, giving him a tired look.

Hot Rod was shocked. He understood that after yesterday's strains Prowl desperately needed energon.

And he was also very hungry himself.

Overcome by despair and unhappiness, he sat on his aft and wailed in long, sad meows.

Megatron stood in the control room, watching the scenario. How pretty.

He was really curious to see what would happen now…

Hot Rod had totally lost himself in his lament and didn't even notice when the door opened.

He was so scared and so unhappy! That was the only thought that reigned his mind now.

Prowl though, ever alert, heard Megatron entering. But he felt too weak to rise. So he just gave a deep grumble, alerting Hot Rod.

The youngster stopped in his wailing and shrank back when he saw that Megatron had entered the room without him noticing.

Turning towards him, he ducked and pulled backwards a little, showing that he was unsure of how to react.

"Hush hush good boy!" Megatron murmured calmingly.

And then he sat down a bowl and filled it with energon.

Watching that, Hot Rod's optics grew big, his mouth fell open and watered strongly. Damn he was so hungry!

Tentatively he came nearer.

Megatron grinned to himself about the behaviour of the young bot. It was so easy to see how torn he was between his fear and hunger.

"Have I ever done something bad to you?" crooned Megatron. "No, never! I'm good to you!" he claimed and stepped back from the bowl a few meters.

Carefully Hot Rod inched closer, optics always on Megatron.

It was pretty so see how he put his hands down one in front of the other, as if he was balancing on a narrow line.

Hot Rod tried to tell himself to be careful, and to not let himself be lured in, keeping the ways of Prowl in mind.

But as soon as the smell of fresh energon entered his olfactory sensors, his mistrust was forgotten and his starving digestion unit took over control.

He darted forth and stuck his lips into the bowl, drinking greedily as long as he could.

But Megatron never approached him. He just watched him with a satisfied smile.

Hot Rod emptied the bowl to the last drop, licking it completely clean and also lapping the energon off the floor where he had spilled some in his haste.

This was so incredibly good! His d.u. cheered and immediately began processing the sheer energy.

But he was still hungry! He wanted more! And more substantial things, too!

Insecure, he looked up at Megatron.

The huge silver mech grinned at him and threw a small item into his direction.

It clattered on the floor a few meters away from Hot Rod. The cougarbot carefully drew nearer to it and examined it. It smelled very tasty… he picked it up with his lips and crunched on it. Oh wonderful, it was iron! Yummy rusted iron chips!

It was so pleasant on his glossa that he nearly forgot observing Megatron.

Still he wanted more!

And the silver mech had more! He was just turning another ironchip between his fingers, looking at Hot Rod expectantly.

Forgetting all his pride, Hot Rod sank down to the floor with his chest, begging prettily for more.

Indeed the decepticon leader threw him the chip and he quickly jumped to fetch and devour it.

They continued this game with three more chips. Megatron carefully lured Hot Rod closer and closer to him.

But with the fifth chip Hot Rod's facial expression suddenly changed. It looked shocked, and he immediately turned around and galloped back to his lair and the cage with the chip between his teeth.

There he dropped it between the bars and meowed at Prowl. The tactician had observed the whole scenario and wasn't happy at all about Hot Rod adulating the enemy's leader. But slowly he began to forgive him. He was so horribly hungry – and his own desire to take the chip was by now so high that it was close to overcoming his pride, too.

Hot Rod hung his head in disappointment when Prowl didn't fetch the chip. But he left it lying there and galloped back to Megatron to get more.

The decepticon leader had watched the action with a little surprise. Seemingly the behaviour script hadn't overridden that disgusting altruism of the autobots. At least not completely.

But he also knew that he really had to give them sustenance. Prowl, too. Obviously the tactician was already too weak to rise, and the fights and injuries yesterday with the blood loss sure had left them in need of substantial matter, too.

So he pulled out a bottle of dissolved metals and other materials a bot would need from his cargo container. He moved slowly, giving Hot Rod time to pull back, when he went for the bowl and filled it with the fluid.

Hot Rod raised his head up high and sniffed.

Megatron took a few steps away again and sat down to look less intimidating.

Carefully Hot Rod prowled nearer. Now, since his first hunger was sated, he was more cautious and always eyed Megatron while he lapped up the tasty fluid.

But this tasted so well! He sighed deeply while he swallowed gulp by gulp. It was incredibly good and his body rewarded him with a wonderful feeling of satisfaction while he took it up. But no matter how good it was, he stopped drinking when about half of the sustenance was gone. And began to shove the bowl towards the cage, too.

Megatron chuckled. It was so pretty to see how Hot Rod stubbornly didn't use his hands. He could just take the bowl and walk over to the cage – but no, he crawled on all fours and troublesomely shoved the bowl with his nose.

He had never thought that the influence of the behaviour script was so big! That it obviously defied all reasonable thought, all common sense!

And while Hot Rod was still occupied with bringing the bowl to his companion, Megatron's thoughts wandered off to imagining what animal he could turn Starscream into…

Hot Rod grew slightly frustrated with the stupid bowl, but he never considered another approach to transport it.  
Finally he had reached the cage.

Gently he pawed Prowl's doorwings.

Prowl smelled the fluid, he knew it was perfect to fill up the needs of his system. But he felt he was too weak to get it.

After a futile try to get to his legs, he toppled back down to the floor, wheezing with exhaustion.

Panicked, Hot Rod cried out and stretched his paw through the bars, patting the other mech. He didn't react, just lay there, staring emptily against the wall.

Oh no! Hot Rod paced in front of the cage nervously, wanting to get in, but there was no way. He threw himself against the bars and gnawed at them again – it was no use. Deep in his spark he was awfully scared, because his instinct was telling him his comrade was leaving. Leaving forever to never rise again. He didn't want to be alone! He had to rescue him!

Finally having an idea, he ran off towards Megatron.

The silver mech hadn't moved, just sat there observing.

Hot Rod halted barely a few meters away from him and meowed at him demandingly.

It was amazing that he quite obviously also never considered speaking anymore…

But also without words, Megatron knew perfectly well what he wanted. And he complied, pulling an energon goodie out and throwing it at Hot Rod.

Immediately the young autobot snatched it up with his lips, resisted the urge to swallow it down successfully and galloped back to the cage.

There he let the goodie drop and shoved it into the cage with his paw – as closely to Prowl's face as possible.

The other autobot stirred.

He looked at the goodie for a long time.

It was from Megatron.

He shouldn't take it.

But… he just had to!

Struggling weakly on the floor, he wriggled closer to the goodie.

Hot Rod observed him and meowed encouragingly.

With his last strength, Prowl gave himself a shove, stretched out his head and snatched the goodie with his teeth.

Primus this was good!

The energon melted through the small cube into his mouth and he gulped it down greedily, no more thought about Megatron and giving into him. Just eat, just survive…

When Hot Rod was sure Prowl had the goodie down, he returned to Megatron and begged for more.

The silver mech gave him more. It would need plenty of energon goodies to get Prowl reactivated.

The youngster brought it all to Prowl like the good cub he was.

Slowly the tactician regained strength. After four goodies he managed to twist so far that he could support on his forelegs to stick his face out through the bars, drink the sustenance from the bowl and crunch the rust chip.

Then finally Megatron decided to change course. He rose and went towards the cage. He didn't even try to be less intimidating.

He was – and he knew it. And now he would show it to have the autobots respect him. They would have to subject to him – or die.

Prowl was in no state to run away anyway. Hot Rod looked a bit fearful and retreated a few meters, but not further.

Megatron sat right at the cage and gazed at Prowl intensely.

The tactician stared back, easily holding his glare.

"It's your decision" said Megatron and pulled out a glowing energon cube.

"Eat or die." He offered Prowl the cube through the bars.

The autobot was clearly fighting with himself.

He felt like a very bad traitor. He should choose to die instead of submitting to the enemy.

But after several minutes of hesitation, he drew forth, enclosed his lips around a corner of the cube and sucked it completely empty, satisfying his horrible need for energy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Golden cage**

Hot Rod gasped when he saw Prowl drinking the whole energon cube directly from Megatron's hand.

Finally! Finally the stubborn tomcat gave in! Did they ever have a choice?

Somehow he was incredibly relieved. And carefully came closer to Megatron, mewing prettily.

The decepticon leader smirked and fetched another energon cube.

He held it out at Hot Rod.

The youngster was still very afraid and mistrustfully inched closer. At one point he halted and stretched his head out, trying to reach the cube without getting any closer.

Megatron chuckled.

Instead of just taking one step further Hot Rod made nearly impossible gymnastics to balance out his body with sticking his head out as far as possible.

Megatron decided to not be mean now. Though it would have been fun to pull the cube a bit away to make Hot Rod topple over, he knew it would shatter the carefully built trust the youngster was developing into him.

And without trust you could tame no animal. At least not make it a pleasant pet. And that was what Megatron wanted to have.

So he held the cube a little further towards Hot Rod. The youngster enclosed a corner with his lips and sucked the energon out.

He blissfully closed his optic shutters and Megatron saw how his throat's tubes moved with swallowing.

It gave him a pang of heat suddenly shooting through his body.

The young autobot was looking exquisite…

His face was sleek and his olfactory sensor pretty pointy. His lips were finely curved, and his facial dermaplates were incredibly fine and had a bright silver color.

For a moment Megatron totally forgot his control and gaped openly, watching how the soft lips of the youngster caressed the cubecorner and the agile glossa darted out to lick it.

Megatron felt how his body reacted in a very distinct way – a way he had not experienced anymore for centuries.

Quickly he tried to get himself under control again.

Slag, now he could understand how Prowl had come to mounting the youngster!

Hot Rod emptied the cube down to the last drop, tilting his head far back while drinking.

"Good boy" Megatron praised him. He really wanted to touch the youngster, but he believed that it would be too early. A little more patience would sure give better results here…

When the cube was empty, Hot Rod pulled back and settled in his lair, watching Megatron a little mistrustful.

The decepticon just nodded at him. "Good boy. You don't need to be afraid of me. I'm not bad for you, am I?" Then he rose and left, wanting to grant the auto… cougarbots some time to sort their thoughts out.

From the control room he observed how Hot Rod moved to the bars and meowed at Prowl.

The tactician was lying curled up on the floor and grumbled.

Megatron could well imagine that he was angry with himself about taking that energon from him.

But he also knew that no beast would ever starve to death out of pride. Only a stupid autobot would do that. But since the behaviour script was obviously so powerful… he had no doubt that soon also the proud old tactician would submit to him.

--

Hot Rod was a little disappointed.

He was rather sure that Prowl should be able to move now, but the tactician had curled up into a tight ball and his only reaction to him was grumbling warningly when he touched him through the bars.

Fine, when that was the thanks for him helping him!

Hurt, Hot Rod moved away from the cage and sat in another corner, sulking.

Slowly he was beginning to feel fed up with this.

Prowl was so unsteady! One time he attacked him, then he was licking his spoiler kindly, then he grumbled at him again! What the pit should he make of that? He really couldn't read him.

--

When Megatron came to the control centre of the Nemesis, he found Starscream standing around there with his arms crossed.

"And, what are your precious cougarbots doing?" he asked snappily.

For a moment the decepticon leader was irritated. What had Starscream to say on that?

But then it dawned on him.

His dear second in command was envious!

So hating him but still so craving for his attention, too.

He chuckled. "Giving in" he informed.

It made Starscream snort disdainfully.

"I will have some very pretty autobot pets soon" Megatron announced.

"Disgusting" Starscream claimed.

But Megatron wouldn't have himself enraged. "I know you are envying them the attention I grant them" he said casually.

"What?!" called Starscream. "Never!" he claimed, but his voice had become all screechy, betraying his agitation. And when he stomped out, olfactory sensor raised up high, Megatron knew he had hit the nail on the head.

--

Annoyed and bored, Hot Rod had begun to clean himself by licking his armour.

He also licked his wounds he had received during the struggles and after that felt much better already.

It took much time until he had all surfaces shiny and clean. In between he sometimes looked over at the cage, but Prowl hardly moved and didn't show the slightest hint that he wanted Hot Rod to come back to him.

It hurt the youngster. He had thought they were friends! He did everything to show his affection for Prowl and hoped to get it back – and the only thing he got was grumbling and attacks!

It was awfully disappointing.

Pouting, he lay down and slumbered for a while.

After a good while the door opened again and Megatron came in.

Hot Rod's spark fluttered. He so craved for social contact! And when Prowl wouldn't give him...

The huge silver mech smiled up at him, quirking an optic ridge.

Gathering all his courage, Hot Rod jumped off the crate he sat on and went towards Megatron.

He meowed a little in greeting.

"So you're curious?" Megatron asked and sat down on the floor. He picked out a small energon goodie and threw it just a meter away.

With little hesitation Hot Rod went for it and took it up.

He heard rustling behind him and a look over his shoulder showed him that Prowl had risen to all fours, observing him closely.

But Hot Rod was sulking. Stupid old tomcat! Always wanted to control him and didn't want to give care and affection in turn!

He turned back to Megatron and meowed for more energon.

With a smirk the big mech offered him another goodie – on his hand.

Hot Rod licked his lips nervously. Take that directly from him?

For a good while he was torn. Then he heard a warning grumble coming from Prowl in the cage.

His spark twisted in its casing.

He wanted to please Prowl. He belonged to his pack. But on the other hand... what had he to lose? Perhaps he would even be treated better in the other pack!

Another warning sound, this time a sharp hiss.

Stupid Prowl! Should he rot in his cage! Didn't he see that the silver mech had the upper hand, no matter what they did? They had no choice! But when they decided to follow him willingly now, they would probably be rewarded with good positions in his pack!

There was a hint of doubt in Hot Rod about it, something told him that the decision he was making was wrong.

But then his youthful hurt pride was stronger – and he darted forth and snatched the goodie.

Megatron did nothing but to praise him for it and offer him a rust chip, too.

So tasty! Hot Rod stretched his head out and took it up too.

Megatron offered him a polymer cookie.

Happy, Hot Rod also took this, purring with satisfaction when he chewed it.

In the back Prowl angrily paced his cage. What was the youngster doing? What was he thinking?

But no matter how he growled and hissed, Hot Rod plainly ignored him.

"You're such a good boy" Megatron crooned. "Come here" he encouraged, waving his hand.

Hot Rod trampled on the spot, nervous with indecision.

He so wanted to get some affection! His spark was so in need of it! He wanted a warm place to recharge, he wanted protection, and he wanted ...

Freedom...

He wanted to get out of here! And ... he wanted to know who he should follow! If Prowl couldn't give him the protection and leadership he craved for...

His spark aching, he pulled forth and rubbed his head against Megatron's hand.

A satisfied grin stole itself into Megatron's face when he tenderly stroked the youngster's pretty round helmet. It fitted perfectly into his hand.

In the back of the room Prowl screamed with rage, but Hot Rod did no longer react to him.

Prowl jumped against the bars of the cage and howled.

That hurt! That hurt to see it! That stupid youngster was making peace with the enemy! Was flattering him without shame!

His spark throbbed painfully in his chest, having to watch that. It shattered his belief in the other bot deeply.

And to see the satisfaction in the face of the enemy! O Primus didn't Hot Rod see that he was just mischievously used?

Hot Rod purred with bliss. The warm, tenderly stroking hand on his head was so good! Finally affection!

He stroked around the other mech, purring and receiving more and more caresses which healed his sore spark. Megatron just held his hand ready and pressed it against him while Hot Rod pulled through under it.

"Good boy" crooned Megatron and patiently stroked him as long as he wanted.

Not that he was getting bored of it anyway... the youngster felt incredibly good.

He had for a very long time not touched another mech and had totally forgotten how pleasant it was.

Sometimes he gave Hot Rod more energon treats and soon the youngster was taking them without fear directly from his hand.

"So good" Megatron said and fondled Hot Rod under the chin. The youngster purred.

And in his chest Megatron's spark was bobbing with excitement and satisfaction.

There he had the young autobot right where he wanted him...

Eating out of his hand.

Finally he rose. For a moment he considered letting Hot Rod out right now, but then he opted for patience. The bond to his new master should grow stronger first.

"I'll be right back!" he told the autobot and left.

Hot Rod peeked out through the door, for a moment thinking that he might manage to jump out. But then he didn't dare it yet.

Megatron hurried to fetch a fluffy cosy blanket.

Since he was the only one owning such things, he had to take it from his own berth.

With that he returned to the former torture room.

Hot Rod immediately came trotting towards him, meowing happily when he came back in. Very good.

"Yes, good boy" he praised and went over to Hot Rod's lair. There he placed the blanket and made a comfortable nest for his little courgarbot with it.

Hot Rod padded around him, nervously eyeing the foreign thing.

But when Megatron patted it, showing him that it wasn't dangerous, he began to carefully examine it.

He sniffed at it and shortly touched it with his paw. When it didn't bite him, he nuzzled his head into the soft, fluffy thing here and there and finally climbed onto it, let himself roll over to his back and writhed comfortably on it, rubbing his backside, purring.

Megatron chuckled. He offered Hot Rod another energon goodie and the young autobot jumped up and eagerly ate it right out of his hand.

Beside them Prowl roared with anger and tried to gnaw the bars through, but of course he couldn't.

Megatron was very satisfied with his work when Hot Rod ignored him plainly. Obviously he had successfully dissolved the loyalty between the two. Very good.

"You're a good cougarbot" he crooned and stroked him teasingly. The youngster nuzzled his head into his hand and purred.

It sent good feelings to Megatron's spark. Warm and fuzzy feelings he hadn't had for a very, very long time.

And he decided the idea to turn his prisoners into his pets was probably the best he had had in all the time on earth.


End file.
